Santa Claus traded in his red suit for the black and blue uniforms of the Arlington Police Department on Monday.
Arlington police officers spent Christmas Eve delivering gifts, toys and household items to 12 needy families.
"We want to make sure we can make a kid's Christmas," said Randle Meadows, Arlington Police Association president. "We see families and we see children in need every day on our job, and we want to make sure we can go out there and do what we can and help out those families, especially on Christmas."
Officers in each of the city's four patrol districts chose families they thought deserved the toys and other household items.
"We are very ... appreciative of [the officers]," said a tearful Veronica Ordonez, the grandmother of three boys who received gifts from APD. "We thought for a while that we weren't going to have anything."
This is the 26th year the Arlington Santa Cops have delivered toys to families.
