Toronto Police: to serve, protect and collect.

It’s an open secret — some police officers carry their own trading cards, not unlike those of hockey greats or Pokemon, and hand them out to people who ask.

Toronto’s finest are depicted on horseback, tearing up Lake Ontario on jet-skis and kneeling beside amber-eyed German shepherds. So far, officers with the marine unit, mounted unit and police dog services carry the trading cards.

And they’ve become quite the collector’s items among a small faction of fans.

“We get people running out of buildings saying, ‘Is that Tecumseh?” said Staff Insp. Bill Wardle, of the mounted unit and police dog service, referring to one of the horses.

The trading cards have been around since Anne de Haas, a Toronto photographer, approached police with the idea in 2004 after seeing U.S. officers handing out similar cards at an equestrian competition.

“I thought: What a cool idea — we should do that up here,” de Haas told the Star.

The cards were printed for free thanks to a $30,000 cheque written to police from an anonymous donor who heard about the project. De Haas took the photos pro bono.

“I really believe in getting kids involved so they can develop a relationship with police,” de Haas said.

The mounted unit soon realized they had hit on something. “Kids just love them,” Wardle said.

The project’s success led to a dog deck in 2006, and a marine unit series in 2012.

The cards themselves are sources of police trivia. For instance, Toronto police have only one female dog, a chocolate Lab named Shimmer, who tracks down explosives and firearms.

“When not working, Shimmer enjoys hanging out with her police dog friends at home and retrieving at the speed of sound, true to her full name Shimmer at Mach 1,” her card reads.

The rarest card of all — the Wayne Gretzky, if you will — is the stable manager from the 2011 horse series. Those hoping to score the card, which shows stable manager Paul Clark sitting atop a tractor, must visit the police stable at Exhibition Place.

“We call it our goalie card,” joked Wardle. “The little fellas just love that tractor card.”

The cards aren’t just for parades and public events; officers often bring them along to calls.

“If a search warrant is being done, the officer can hand the cards to kids in the area, so they don’t just see the officers doing an operation. They get a bond with the officer and the dog, so it really humanizes the experience,” Wardle said.

While the cards may have been intended for kids, a few adults have jumped on the bandwagon.

Loren Hendin, a 21-year-old public affairs director, first heard about the trading cards one summer day while hanging out with friends in Trinity Bellwoods Park.

As an officer trotted past on Trooper, a 6-year-old Percheron cross, Hendin’s friend mentioned the cards.

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“It just triggered something inside me. I was like, ‘I need one,’” Hendin said.

She sprinted across the park barefoot and politely asked for her first card. She has since approached two other officers on horseback to expand her deck.

“People love it when I show them the cards; they think it’s so funny,” she said. “Maybe they just think I’m a little ridiculous.”