ST. LOUIS – The City of St. Louis Police Department will now have officers hand out candy from their patrol cars to the city’s youth. Police Chief John Hayden announced the news on Twitter and said it’s a good way to build positive relationships between police and young people in the community. The effort got underway on Monday.

Chief Hayden wrote in part in the tweet, “it’s the little things that often do the most good.”

There was mixed reaction on social media about the new effort.

The St. Louis Ethical Society of Police responded to the chief writing the following:

The city’s Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards told our partners at the Post-Dispatch that an anonymous donor is funding the effort.