Muskegon Police Officer Kevin Kattoula is pictured here playing football with neighborhood kids on Thursday, April 16, 2015.

MUSKEGON, MI -- The football-playing, on-duty Muskegon police officers who playfully interacted with a group of neighborhood kids on Thursday, April 16, have received a lot of positive attention.

And well-deserved, say residents who witnessed the impromptu exchange.

When the Muskegon Police Department patrol officers, working the night shift in the area of West Forest Avenue and Seventh Street, took time to play with the kids it didn't go unnoticed, said Emily Collins, a Muskegon resident.

"They've done that before," she said. "They came out (Thursday) again and played football with the kids. Kids really need to know that police are not the enemy. They need to know they can trust them and go to them if they need to."

Collins, who lives in the 300 block of Forest Avenue, and her neighbor, Jessica Lindsay, were outside on Thursday evening when they saw two on-duty officers throwing a football around with a group of children in the street.

Collins took a few photos of the street game as Lindsay took cellphone video that quickly went viral on social media sites.

On Friday, Muskegon police released dash-cam video footage after receiving media requests of the same interaction. In addition to the football action, the dash-cam video shows the children, one giggling, being allowed to explore the police cruiser.

Lindsay said she was glad she captured the moment from her house.

"It was awesome. I actually was in the house and came outside because I thought something (bad) happened. It was nice that they took time out of their day to stop and reach out to their community," Lindsay said. "One of the officers saw one of my kids outside and he was just checking up on him. He had issues with another kid before and just wanted to see how he was doing."

The officers in the photos and video, taken around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, are Muskegon Police Sgt. Tim Bahorski and Officer Kevin Kattoula.

Judging by Facebook comments under the video that was posted on the city of Muskegon page, it's generated a lot of positive feedback.

Lindsay said with the recent news reports of police doing "negative" things that this was refreshing.

Two Muskegon Police officers stopped to play football with area children at Forest Avenue and Seventh Street Thursday night, April 16, 2015.

"Especially with everything that is going on, the videos that others are posting on Facebook, it's nice to see there are still some good officers out here. I would like to see it more often -- for them to stop and interact with other kids," she said.

"It was amazing. You hear so much negative about police officers. I'm glad I videotaped it and shared it out to the community and everyone else."

Muskegon Public Safety Director Jeffrey Lewis said it isn't uncommon for officers to go the extra mile for those they serve and he's thrilled this particular act seems appreciated.

"We think it's great when officers connect with the community," Lewis said. "They were down the street at a call and when they left they saw the kids and started playing football with them."

Heather Lynn Peters covers police and fire, and writes a statewide food column, The Spunky Kitchen, for MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. Email her at hpeters@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter @HLPNEWS.