A Halifax police officer photographed sitting on the sidewalk beside a busker last Thursday says he’s been “overwhelmed” by positive reactions after the touching image went viral online.

The picture was retweeted hundreds of times, earned thousands of likes and even spawned its own hashtag: #HaliCop.

Even so, community response officer Const. Shawn Currie says the captured moment is simply a glimpse into his typical day.

“Part of my job is just to get to know everybody on the streets, whether it’s the merchants, the buskers, the homeless, and I just get to talk to them every single day,” Currie told CTV News Channel Sunday.

Currie said the busker seen in the image plays violin and has become a friendly face on his daily beat. (The man was incorrectly described in early reports as a panhandler.)

“This day in particular, I just wanted to sit down and talk with him and he was already warming up,” he said. “I just thought it would be better if I sat on the sidewalk with him so he could continue what he was doing.”

For Currie, who has worked in policing for 28 years, the online reaction to the photo has been “quite surprising.”

“The last couple days, a lot of people have been coming up to me, hugging me, thanking me. It’s very overwhelming, because that’s just who I am,” he said.

He added that the picture, “gives people a different perspective of what police officers actually do.”

“Ninety per cent of our day is involved with people, talking, interacting. It’s not just all enforcement, writing tickets are arresting people,” he said.

The photo has since taken on a life of its own online and been Photoshopped into several different memes, including a Harry Potter scene, Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” video and Vincent van Gough’s famous painting The Starry Night.

It’s not the first time the Halifax cop has had a taste of online fame. Last July, Currie turned heads after giving a three-year-old boy a fake parking ticket for illegally stopping on his red plastic motorcycle near the Halifax waterfront.

The image was posted to the Halifax Regional Police Facebook page and quickly amassed at least 10,000 likes the day it was posted.

Currie says that all the positive attention helps shine a new light on the role police play in communities.

“It is great to show there is a different side of police officers,” he said.