Everyday, it seems, there is another story about a police officer accused of wrong doing, and it is really getting out of hand.  Last weekend, we, alongside the Evansville Police Department and Vanderburgh County Sheriff's office, collected a ton of toys for area hospitals and filled up a 53-foot semi-trailer for the 6th consecutive year.

Police departments all over the Tri-State go above and beyond every single day to give back to their communities and, yes, a few bad apples make it impossible for the rest of them to do their jobs effectively without being judged, as is the case in any group or organization.

In Lowell, Michigan, the police department wanted to do something special for the community, so they conducted traffic stops on people doing nothing wrong for the sole purpose of giving random people Christmas gifts.

The officer would get people to talk about what they were looking for and radio the responses to a group of 'runners' inside a local Wal-Mart who would buy the gifts and bring them to the officer, who, by the way, is genuinely enjoying peoples' reactions.

Some people slammed it, saying it was staged or whatever, which isn't true.  But they did team with a group of video professionals to make the video. People were saying things like, "They're just doing it because of everything going on around the country."  Yeah, and that is exactly the point. A genuine effort to show another side of a local police department, and what is wrong with that??

This was not a cheap program, as you can see by some of the gifts. I applaud the Lowell police department for this effort. Policing is a tough job and more often than not, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Most of these brave men and women do a great job, doing a job that most don't want to do.

Lowell PD's mission was simple......help turn a bad day into a great day....mission accomplished. Check it out below.

 

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