Early Saturday morning, a half-dozen police vehicles with a dozen officers were seen going into the Target store in Bonney Lake.

There was no crimes being committed, just a little good will being displayed by local police.

The officers, including Police Chief Mike Mitchell, joined 14 area children who were selected to participate in the annual Shop With A Cop event.

Shop With A Cop – which was started several years ago – matches police officers with selected children to spend one hour shopping for holiday gifts.

According to Officer Daron Wolschleger, each child was given a $100 gift card from Target to spend on gifts, either for themselves or family members.

“They can get whatever they want,” Wolschleger said. “A lot of the children also buy gifts for Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters, then take care of themselves.”

Officers hosted fundraisers during the year to pay for the program.

Children selected for the program are students at Emerald Hills, Bonney Lake and Libery Ridge elementary schools, along with Lakeridge and Mountain View middle schools.

Wolschleger said officers visited the schools and asked for names of students with good performance and grades who can benefit from the Shop With A Cop program.

When the children and officers arrived, they were greeted by Santa and McGruff, the Crime Dog.

After each child and officer had their picture taken with Santa, the shopping trek began as officers pushed shopping carts down isles throughout the store.

The most popular sections of the store were the toy and electronics departments.

Wolschleger added that most of the officers at Saturday’s event came on their day off.

“I sent out an e-mail about our program and asked for volunteers, and the response was overhelming,” Wolschlger said.

Target opened their doors at 8 a.m. for the one-hour shopping endeavor with several employees volunteering their time to assist with the event.

After shopping for gifts, several Target employees wrapped gifts for the children. They served hot chocolate and popcorn. All gift-wrapping paper and refreshments were donated by Target.

“Target has been fantastic,” Wolschleger said. “We fundraised here and they took care of us with anything we needed. They opened up there doors for us to come here for this.”

After all the gifts were wrapped, pictures with Santa and the officers were presented to the children.

Shop With A Cop is a nationwide program sponsored by law enforcement agencies.