Tarpon Springs police officers plan to hand out the dolls to encourage children to see them as friendly.
By ANGIE GREEN
Published July 28, 2003
TARPON SPRINGS - They've got fuzzy neon hair, pudgy stomachs and no foreheads. For years, they have amused children and have been collected by First Ladies.
Now the Tarpon Springs Police Department wants to put these trolls to work.
In about a month, Tarpon Springs police will bring some of their 5,000 6-inch dolls out of storage and into patrol cruisers, to community events and to schools.
They plan to call it, "Trolls on Patrol."
The trolls - once a nickname for the police - will be given to any child who wants one of the big-eyed creatures.
And these aren't just any trolls. Long seen as good luck charms, these dolls are no longer bare-bodied. They've still got the trademark stand-up wool hair, but they have gained some personality.
They come dressed as punk rockers, surfers, bellhops and pirates. Some wear pink bikinis to match their hair, others wear the Star of David.
More than a hundred stood in police Chief Mark G. LeCouris' office Friday. One was an accountant holding a miniature 1040 IRS form in his hand and a calculator in the other. Another was a hippie in blue denim bellbottoms and a peace sign necklace.
"They really put smiles on kids' faces," LeCouris said, bearing a huge grin himself.
The trolls, donated by a national nonprofit organization based in Illinois, were first handed out by police last Halloween. Children scurried away with them as soon they were set out.
That got LeCouris thinking.
"Hey, there's something here," he thought. "We can build something."
LeCouris plans to use the trolls as a relationship-builder with children. After noticing how small items like the "Say No to Drugs" bracelets and junior police badges caught on with children, LeCouris thought he would try something new to build a bridge between police and children.
That's one of the department's goals, he said.
The department has a long-running Cops and Kids mentoring program and operates an area youth center. Programs such as these help children see officers differently, he said.
"Children see police officers as role models and friends instead of enemies."
The trolls, donated by the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources, which channels corporate donations of surplus merchandise to nonprofits, will be handed out sporadically by officers on patrol, at preschools and on holidays such as Labor Day. LeCouris hopes that children, like with the "Say No" bracelets, will approach an officer for one.
"It should bring some friendly interaction," LeCouris said.
They should definitely bring out some smiles. When you see them, it's hard not to laugh. They're cute, ugly, funny and stupid-looking all at the same time.
The original maker, Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam, believed the dolls were so ugly that people had to laugh at them, and if they were giggling nothing could harm them. Immensely popular in the 1960s - Lady Bird Johnson reportedly once said she owned one - the trolls' popularity dwindled in the 1980s.
But when LeCouris saw them in a catalog the city purchasing office gave him, that didn't stop him from selecting them. They brought back too many memories of the nickname officers were called.
LeCouris remembers Tarpon residents yelling, "Troll, Troll!" to warn that police were near. The police thought it was hilarious. Why not use it to their advantage?
The trolls, which weigh about an ounce each, usually sell for $6 to $8. The Police Department's 5,000-troll shipment a few months ago is worth about $30,000. Police paid less than $300, the cost of shipping and handling.
