Police in Florida hand out lottery tickets to speeding drivers on Christmas Day

TO PROTECT and serve ... and hand out rewards for dangerous driving.

Police in Melboue, Florida, might want to revisit their charter because their Christmas spirit seems to have flouted the usual process of law and order.

On Christmas Day, Melboue cops handed out scratchies to bad drivers who were pulled over for traffic violations such as speeding.

Rewarding the reckless drivers was all in the name of Christmas cheer, apparently.

"We're just doing a little bit of a different technique," Sgt Jamie Rocque told Florida Today .

"When we pull the motorists over, we're also giving them the scratch-off tickets that the officers bought with their own personal funds.

"It's something good to do in light of the holidays. We're getting a lot of surprised looks … people don't know what to say."

And did any of the hoons tu out to be big winners?

"I don't know, but we wish them well," Rocque said.

Whoa. This feels a little bit too "Chief Wiggum" for our liking.