NEW IBERIA, La. (KLFY) — A new Christmas tradition was celebrated inside the New Iberia Police Department. The inaugural Shop with a Cop was a great success due to generosity across the community.

It was was four nights till Christmas and all through the shop there were children a stirring and with each one a cop.

“Off to get some toys. That’s what I’m talking about,” SGT. Derrick Roque said with cheer. The New Iberia Police Department’s job Tuesday was to make Christmas lists disappear.

Making a list and checking it twice officers with the New Iberia Police Department concluded hundreds of toy giveaways with the shopping spree. Officers replaced their patrol cars with shopping sleighs for 10 lucky kids.

“My little partner here. Her name is Baylyn,” Roque shared. When asked if she can’t wait until Christmas. The 9-year-old Baylyn Hawkins nervously smiled and replied, “Yeah.”

The enforcers of Christmas cheer couldn’t have done so without Santa’s little helpers from the Iberia Parish School Board, the Fraternal Order of Police, and four local high schools consisting of New Iberia Senior High, Westgate, Catholic High, and Highland Baptist. Together they gave thousands of dollars and close to 1,000 toys.

12-years-old Rylee Burke showed off her shopping cart from Shop with a Cop saying, “I wanted to be nice and get most of the stuff for almost everybody else too, and then I got some stuff for me because I just moved, and I don’t have much stuff.”

In Sergeant Roque’s words, “We’re trying to bring a little bit of joy to one child, one family. Luckily, it’s been multiple families and multiple children.”

Over two days 300 kids benefitted from the department’s toy drive, and toy giveaway parade. The greatest gift each kid got to see was the true meaning of policing.

In the check-out aisle, Baylyn Hawkins asked Roque, “Why did you want to be a policeman?”

“Because I wanted to help people,” he replied. “Help somebody that couldn’t help themselves.”