Who are the Rose Brothers and why have they been designing and painting large and flashy NYPD logos in precincts and headquarters and on vehicles and equipment all over the city for the past seven years?

The PBA’s 17th-floor lobby wall became one of the latest beneficiaries of their artistic generosity recently, and we asked them that very question.

“We’re just a couple of Bronx artists and sign-painters who felt that New York City police officers — and other cops around the country — don’t get a fair shake,” says Bobby Rose who, with his brother Calvin, have become the unofficial mural artists of the NYPD. “We wanted to do something to show our support.”

That they have certainly done — with untold gallons of paint.

Without getting paid for their efforts, the Rose Brothers have executed hundreds of these creations — so many that they have lost count. Their art has adorned walls, ceilings, floors, doors and other surroundings at commands in all eight NYPD boroughs. They’ve even plied their craft at non-NYPD locales — the Bronx district attorney’s office, the FBI’s New York City headquarters, the Rockland County sheriff’s office, the state courthouse at 111 Centre St., the Boston PD and many other places.

“It all started at Highway One,” says Bobby, recalling the summer of 1997. It seems that a cop from that command, moonlighting at a lumber company, saw a crest that Bobby had designed and painted for the outfit and got an idea. The cop, since retired, thought the Rose Brothers’ work would look great on a garage door at Highway One and, after getting permission from his C.O., asked the brothers what it would cost.

Not a cent, they told him. “We don’t feel we should profit from such an endeavor,” said Bobby. (Calvin is the silent partner. Bobby does most of the talking.)

The painting, a depiction of the command’s patch, got “a phenomenal response from the cops,” Bobby says, and the captain liked it so much he had one painted on his car and his chopper. Then two cops from the Bronx Task Force were gassing up at Highway One and saw the artwork.

“My captain is a buff and he will really like this,” said one of the cops.

So the Rose Brothers brought their artistic vision to the Bronx Task Force. And the word got around — you know how cops are. And the Rose Brothers’ legend began to grow.

Their visibility almost earned them a commission from an organization on the wrong side of the law. They were painting an emblem on the 26 Pct.’s front door one day while members of the famous Harlem street gang, the Latin Kings, were congregating in a church across the street. They marveled at the Rose Brothers’ skill, and a delegation of their leaders, wearing wide grins, approached the brothers. “They said they were very impressed,” recalls Bobby. “They had never seen street paintings executed so well — and with brushes instead of spray cans” — which was all they knew, coming as they did from the graffiti culture.

As three or four uniformed police officers stood on the precinct steps in a precautionary show of unity with the brothers, one of the gang leaders pulled a copy of his organization’s logo out of his pocket and showed it to them. Could they reproduce it on a wall in their clubhouse?

Above and below: The Rose brothers execute their work by creating a small grid to scale and then meticulously transferring the design to the large area. At bottom: Bobby (l) and Calvin Rose pose with their completed work, the custom-designed PBA logo. At left: The work in progress.

“Uh, we’re only allowed to be contracted out to the NYPD,” Bobby told them.

The brothers came to the PBA by a circuitous route. Manhattan South Trustee John Flynn saw their work at the 13th Pct. in 1998, and there was talk they might do something for the PBA. Then, in early March, the artistic duo walked into the PBA office and asked to see Flynn on a separate matter. Chief receptionist Vicki Mercurio, after informing them that Flynn wasn’t in, learned who the brothers were — she had seen their creation at her local precinct, the 122 — and suggested that they might decorate the empty wall across from the 17th-floor elevator bank. She called in trustees, and it was agreed that they would work their wonders at the PBA. Before the month was out, the production was completed.

The Rose Brothers’ PBA mural consists of a circular emblem, more than six feet in diameter, with the PBA shield flanked by the U.S. and NYPD flags set against the New York skyline and topped by a bald eagle. “We decided to depict the eagle in flight,” says Bobby, “because the PBA is always in motion. That’s why the eagle is sweeping over the city, because the PBA does the same thing.”

The PBA has trademarked the design.

Despite their busy schedule — at the time they were working on the PBA mural, they had eight other projects going and 15 or 20 planned — they agreed to execute a similar mural outside the PBA’s second-floor health and welfare offices.

How, you may ask, can they afford to work so hard at these productions?

“This is not like a job,” says Bobby. “It is just so fulfilling.