CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police want the public to know that they care.

So last Friday, the department posted a picture to Facebook to prove there’s a lot more to their job than taking down thugs or shooting bad guys, Fox 8 reports.

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“Officer Tim Purdy was dispatched to a situation involving a young autistic high school student who left the campus and may have been suicidal,” the post read. “Due to the young man’s neuro-developmental disorder, he also had a history of displaying violent behavior.

“In order to build a connection with the young man, Officer Purdy sat next to him on the ground, talked things through and even got him laughing.”

The post shows a picture of the disgruntled student siting on the curb, with Purdy sitting legs sprawled in the parking lot in front of him.

“Officer Purdy established trust and a relationship that allowed officers to get this young man the help he so desperately needed,” the post read.

The picture and accompanying message garnered more than 650,000 reactions, 227,000 shares, and nearly 28,000 comments over the weekend.

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“There’s more to policing than making arrests and enforcing the law,” the post concluded.  “Sometimes taking those extra little steps makes the biggest difference in someone’s life.”

Commenters online heaped praise on Purdy.

“We need more officers like him,” Bo Dronet wrote in the post’s comments. “This is what protect and serve is about.”

“Thank you sir for taking time to help this kid,” Madison Cadeau posted. “God bless you.”

“Thank you for being human sir!” Anthony Fields wrote. “Much respect!”

Several also called on the department to appoint Purdy as a training officer.

“He needs to be promoted to training officer,” Travis Meadows wrote.

“This guy embodies what it should mean to be a policy enforcement officer. He should be the chief policy setter,” Pater Familias added.

Some also noted that the picture is merely one example of the good work done by many police officers every day that’s often overshadowed by sensationalized officer involved shooting incidents or other bad behavior.

“There are so many officers just like this guy doing things just like this every day,” Arish Rivers wrote. “’The news’ and viral social media videos just love to sensationalize the negative so much that it seems the norm.”

“I’m glad to see this,” Darrick Barraza posted. “I’m tired of all the bad cops just jumping the gun nowadays and beating or killing.”

“This is this the part of being a LEO that the news media conveniently ignores,” Gary Karle added. “At the end of the day a police officer is just one of us. He/she is trying to do their job to best of their abilities and most of what they do goes unnoticed by the people we have been called to serve.”