It’s not all traffic stops and arresting bad guys for Brunswick’s police officers. On Monday, police got one more tool to be a positive force in the community when Jim Bridge of the Brunswick Masonic Lodge presented the department with 200 Hannaford gift cards, each worth $10.

The cards will be distributed by officers to those in need, or to people whom they see performing good deeds — examples could include a witness who comes forward despite personal difficulties, someone who turns in a lost wallet or a pedestrian using the crosswalk instead of jaywalking.

The cards will help the department with its public relations, its image, “and more importantly, it will help folks that need a little step-up once in a while,” said Brunswick Police Chief Richard Rizzo.

“Society is changing in some ways we don’t care for,” Bridge said. “Even in the relatively small towns like Brunswick, things are getting more dangerous for the police.”

The Brunswick Masons looked for a way to help, and decided on the gift cards that police can give out to whomever as they see fit.

“There might be some young person who gets turned around, and says maybe, ‘I want to be a cop,’ or decides not to do something bad because of it,” Bridge said.

Bridge said the Masons wanted to find a program that would provide food, and the Hannaford gift cards could be set up to prevent the purchase of alcohol and tobacco.

The cards go hand in hand with department’s community policing efforts, something which is part of every officer’s job, said Cmdr. Tom Garrepy.

Rizzo added that the community policing programs humanize the police.

“Cops are just people like you that happen to be police officers,” he said.

Members of the department serve on various boards like Sexual Assault Support Services of Midcoast

Maine and Home to Home helping prevent domestic altercations. They work on family crisis committees, in the schools and with the recreation department on the bike rodeo. They coach youth sports and are involved in the Maine Special Olympics — much of it on their own time.

In short, police say that the majority of their job consists of helping others.

“We do that all day long,” Rizzo said.