The latest cop on the beat in this town and other American cities is flat, lifeless and a stiff conversationalist.
But the life-size cardboard cutouts are helping cut down on crime. The photographs are credited with reducing shoplifting in a Colorado food store by 25 percent, and the Dallas Police Department praised their deterrent effect even though a supermarket chain there quit using them."It's like a scarecrow. People see the image and they think of a real cop," said Ron Jones, president of Palo Alto-based Colossal Graphics Inc., a manufacturer of Clone-a-Cop cutouts. "It's the psychological intimidation factor."
The cutouts are popular in Britain with women living alone. They buy them on the theory that criminals will mistake them for real officers and stay away.
In the United States, flat cops are standing guard in Illinois, Texas, Colorado and California, usually to deter shoplifters.
Manufacturers photograph real police officers to make the models. Often police departments send letters to stores, telling them of the product.
Police Chief James Cost in Campbell, a community south of Palo Alto, was enthusiastic about the program after one of his officers posed for a cutout.
Cost wrote to businesses in Campbell urging them to use the cutouts, which cost $400 apiece. The department plans to buy them, then distribute them free to interested business owners.
"If we'll pay $400 for a gun, why not pay $400 for a cardboard cutout? People sort of snicker. But if it works, let's go give it a try," said Cost, noting a real cop cost the department about $60,000 a year with benefits.
The Oakland Police Department has asked about Clone-a-Cops, but Lt. Fred Peoples said he didn't know of plans to buy them.
"It sounds good on paper but you wonder whether it's worth going through with. I don't think it's a high priority at this time," he said.
In Colorado Springs, Cub Foods produced its own cop clones, paying police officers to model. The flat cops watch over health and beauty aids and the tempting bulk food bins.
"It's been a very big success for us," said merchandising manager Mike Arnold. He said shoplifting is down about 25 percent.
Dallas police distributed the cutouts in Kroger stores in 1989. They guard a Domino's pizza franchise and an apartment house business office in a drug-plagued neighborhood, said Lt. Stan Kay.
An initial 40-day study showed the cutout cops cut crime 71 percent in those businesses, according to the department. "We don't have any real figures, but we have a good feeling about it," Kay said.
Charlie Tyner, head of security for Kroger in Dallas, said the cutouts were removed after a few months because they are "just too large" and got in the way.
In any case, he said, theft picked up after shoplifters got used to the cutouts.