'Badges For Baseball' Connects Police Officers With Children They Serve

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minneapolis Police are using sports to help them connect with children in the community.

Police worked with the Cal Ripken, Senior Foundation Saturday to put on a multi-sport clinic at Eddie Phillips Field in North Minneapolis. St. Paul Saints players helped out too by playing baseball with the kids.

The kids also played football and dodgeball. They call it the "Badges for Baseball" program.

"Whenever you can get cops and kids together, it's a good thing," Officer Mike Kirchin said. "We want these kids to know that the cops are good. We're out here in the community, we've got a tough job to do, but here in north Minneapolis -- these kids are really, really busy. These cops up here are phenomenal, but they're very good. They're very professional. We want the kids to see that we're just normal moms and dads that come in to do a very tough job."

Badges for Baseball runs in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice. Last year it ran in 512 communities in 21 states.