When police officers take the oath to serve and protect, most of them take that oath very seriously. For one Mesa, Arizona officer, it meant that he would go above and beyond what might be considered normal for the people he made his oath to.

Officer Kent Green takes his duties very seriously, so one day when he spotted an obviously homeless man digging through a dumpster he stopped to see if he was okay. He didn’t realize he was being watched by a resident of the apartment complex where the dumpster was located.

Green says that the city has had some really bad accident, and even deaths, involving homeless people and dumpsters. They might crawl in them or behind them to get away from the elements only to be crushed by the garbage truck when they come to pick up the trash and don’t realize that a person is nearby.

The policeman realized that the man’s shoes were very worn, so he decided to help the man. Green is a runner and often carries extra pairs of shoes in his patrol car. He had a pair in there that day and gave them to the grateful man.

Green says he goes through a pair of shoes every four to six weeks so he hangs on to his pairs that are still in good condition, but not in good enough condition to run in anymore. When he sees people that need them, he’s happy to give them a pair.

Although Green’s actions have gone viral, he says he did it because it was the right thing to do, not because he was being watched and was trying to impress anyone.

His actions have gained plenty of exposure and an outpouring of people have asked to donate additional shoes for Green to hand out during his patrols. This goes to prove that not all cops are the bad guys that some of the media wants to make them out to be.