Floyd County, IA- A North Iowa law enforcement agency is encouraging people to get into the giving spirit this holiday season.
When people get pulled over in Floyd County, a warning comes with a smile.
"It's just something that everybody wins and that's why the sheriff calls it Operation Smile," said Former Floyd County Sheriff Bill Cavanaugh.
He says while watching TV one morning last year he saw a story about a police department encouraging people to donate to charity while giving out traffic warnings. He says he wished he thought of it before retiring as sheriff.
"I called the Sheriff after I heard it and he said ‘well I caught part of it, but not all of it,’ so I came up and talked to him and he went and saw the county attorney and the next day he had it up and running," Cavanaugh recalls.
Starting last week Operation Smile went into effect for its second year. Floyd County deputies armed themselves with slips of paper listing the county's non-profit groups.
When they deliver a traffic warning, they also deliver a message, asking people to think of those who are less fortunate this holiday season.
"So the deputy pulls somebody over and they know they're gonna give them a warning, that's when they're okay in making that suggestion," said Floyd County Sheriff Rick Lynch.
Lynch says they're not giving speeders an option between paying for a ticket or giving to a charity. His deputies are just encouraging generosity.
"If that violator then goes and pays it forward to a charity or a needy person in our community or another community, that's a positive thing," Lynch said.
"People kind of think, if he would have wrote me a ticket it would have cost me a minimum of $92 you know, I can write a check out for $20," said Deputy Brian Tiedemann.
Tiedemann may have netted the biggest contribution from a traffic stop last year. A generous speeder got his charitable group to donate one thousand dollars to Floyd County Food Box, and didn't stop there.
"The same group sent us $1,555 already here just the beginning of November," Cavanaugh said.
So Tiedemann and his fellow deputies will encourage giving, one traffic stop at a time.
Lynch says there's really no way to track just how much "operation smile" is producing in charitable contributions unless it's a big donation.
He’s planning on bringing the idea up at the state's next Sheriff's annual meeting.
Lynch and Cavanaugh say if people from out of town can't donate to Floyd county charities they encourage them to give to a cause in their area.
