There may have been plenty of bad stories about police in recent weeks, but an NBA star has captured an emotional moment between a cop and a homeless man.

Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert said the cop flashed his lights and pulled over, but when he got out of the car, instead of arresting the man, he handed him a spare pair of boots.

Hibbert posted a picture to his Instagram account yesterday, saying: 'Just seen an Indy police officer pull over. Go into his trunk and give a homeless guy a pair of shiny boots.'

Roy Hibbert, center for the Indiana Pacers, posted this picture of an Indiana police officer handing a spare pair of boots to a homeless man on his Instagram and Facebook pages

Hibbert said he tried contacting the officer in order to offer him free tickets to a Pacers game (file pic)

The image shows a black homeless man standing by the side of the road holding the boots, while the white police officer walks back to his patrol car.

Hibbert said that when the officer handed the shoes over, the homeless man appeared to thank him, but the cop didn't respond and instead just climbed back into his car and drove away.

Hibbert said he has since contacted the police department to try and track down the officer in order to give him free tickets to a basketball game.

The news comes after a torrid summer for police forces across the U.S. Officers in Missouri had to deal with weeks of protests following the shooting of teenager Michael Brown.

In New York, cops were also targeted by demonstrators after Eric Garner, a father-of-six, suffocated while being held in a chokehold by an off duty officer who accused him of selling untaxed cigarettes.

Hibbert took a picture of the incident on his smartphone and posted it to his 180,000 Instagram followers, before tweeting it to another 333,000 people.

Speaking to Buzzfeed, Mr Hibbert said: 'Not all police officers are what you hear about in Ferguson. This type of stuff you don’t hear about too often.'