olice officers should treat each other with respect and courtesy because we shoulder the same responsibility and take the same risks. We do and should give each other and family members the benefit of the doubt. While the media may scream that we treat each other like we’re above the law, I believe we have a valid reason to treat each other differently from non-law enforcement personnel.

Mutual courtesy is a concept in law enforcement because no matter how you slice it, police officers are different from the rest of society. Whether you patrol the quiet streets of Mayberry or the sidewalks of New York, it takes only one call, one job, to make you a line-of-duty casualty. 

We’re also different because we are empowered to use deadly physical force when necessary and we also deprive people of their personal freedom — the most cherished right of all Americans. We run towards danger while others run away.  We share a brotherhood of blood because so much of it has been and has yet to be spilled in the performance of our duties on behalf of millions of strangers.

That makes police officers different from ordinary citizens, who don’t assume those same risks. So that’s why we must respect each other and extend professional courtesy whenever possible.

That also includes respecting PBA cards or other law enforcement-issued union cards. The card is a symbol of professional courtesy that our members want bestowed upon the recipient of that card. The bottom line: Do not write over a PBA card.

In the context of professional courtesy, I can’t help but think of Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin, the first two officers killed — executed, really — in the line of duty since September 11, 2001. Would any New Yorker or American argue that the job they did every day — buy from and bust gun dealers — doesn’t make them different from the rest of the population. They did a job no one else can or wants to do because of the inherent dangers.

All police officers from every jurisdiction, big and small, sophisticated and simple, deserve courtesy and respect for placing their lives on the line every day.

Every law enforcement family lives with the very real possibility that their father or mother, son or daughter might not come home one day. They bear the burden of the job stresses that their loved one brings home. They deserve a break, too.

We’ve all heard it before: You can’t break the law to enforce the law. True enough, but you can give a break to the law enforcement officer who may be the next line-of-duty death if it causes no harm to anyone else. 

They’ve earned it.