Usually when you see those red and blue lights in your mirror, it's not a good thing. But not this week in Rochester!

According to an ABC-6 story, the Rochester Police Department is once again putting on its 'Secret Santa' program, where officers on patrol around the Med City are armed with holiday cheer, and hand out $100 bills instead of tickets!

The program is funded from an anonymous donor, the story said, and allows various officers to hand out goodwill this holiday season. The program started Monday and continues through Christmas Day.

The story says the program is pretty popular with both citizens and officers. "We are people too,” Rochester police officer Alex Kendrick said in the story. “We don't like to get people in trouble. We like to ‘Serve and Protect’ is what the motto is."

What a cool program! My dad was a police officer back in Wisconsin for over 30 years, and I'm sure he would have LOVED to have a program like this in place at his department.

And while he wouldn't ever confirm it officially, I'm pretty sure all that on all those Christmas Eve nights when my dad was on duty, he never handed out a citiation either. "It's Christmas Eve!" he'd always say, even if never had the chance to replace a ticket with a $100 bill.

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