St. Joseph Police Department holds annual "Shop with Cops" event

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- The St. Joseph County Police Department held its annual "Shop with Cops" event Thursday night. This year the children and officers wore masks to stay stafe.

"We partner with the YWCA each year and we bring children from the women’s shelter here for an evening of dinner and then shopping at Meijer to try and bring joy to all the kids here," said St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman.

Redman says the department had to do extra planning in order to make sure everyone stayed safe.

"It takes a lot of time and preparation every year to put this together," said Redman "This year was a little more difficult because of the pandemic, all the safety precautions we had to take into consideration."

Redman says the pandemic made it even more important to spread some holiday cheer.

"We wanted to bring some bit of normalcy to these kids’ lives, especially with the pandemic as long as it’s been going on, the mental health toll that it takes on parents as well as children," said Redman.

Redman says he was glad he was able to put smiles on children's faces, even if though the event looked different than in years past.

"It’s a real joy for us as police officers to build these relationships with our local youth and at the same time bring some joy to the kids at Christmas time," said Redman.