There's no record of Drew Barrymore ever telling her theatrical family that she wanted to be an accountant instead of an actor. We’re also pretty sure that Sean Lennon never told Yoko that he wanted to go into law enforcement rather than rock ‘n’ roll. And we’re absolutely certain that Mike Diesel never resisted the NYPD career that has identified both sides of his family for more than six decades. “It just never came up,” says Diesel, who is assigned to the 110 Pct. “My grandfather, my father, my uncles — they never explicitly encouraged or discouraged me. But, to say the least, you could never forget they were on the job.” To say the least. Michael L. Diesel, the paternal grandfather, graduated from the Academy in January 1953 and spent most of his years in blue working with Queens Traffic. He liked that experience so much he subsequently became a school crossing guard until retiring altogether to Florida. The middle Diesel, Michael J. (for the French-Canadian Jacques), did most of his time after his January 1969 graduation with Special Events in Manhattan and as a field training officer with the 103 Pct before working undercover for years with a prostitution task force. To hear the current Diesel tell it, that posting was no walk in the alley. “He didn’t like talking about it much, but he was shot at several times.”

It wasn’t any panicked pimp, though, who gave Michael J. his worst physical moments. As his son recounts it: “First he was in an accident that did a real job on his ligaments. They moved him inside to Processing at the 103, and that was okay until one day an EDP exploded. Before they got the guy under control, my father had ruptured back and neck discs.”

But Michael J.’s ultimate decision to take his disabilities into the private sector, specifically into the Life Star ambulance service, hardly left the Diesels without an NYPD representative. First there was Michael J.’s brother Keith, who worked his way up eventually to become the lead bike in presidential motorcades.

Then there was the youngest Diesel’s mother’s side of the family — his maternal grandfather John J. Dennis and his maternal uncle John R. Dennis. And just to show that the Diesels didn’t only equate police work with the NYPD, there was another paternal uncle Dennis who joined the New York State Police.

As Mike Diesel points out, the family has had more in common than just the wearing of the blue. “Queens, Queens, Queens,” he laughs. “The 103, the 107, the 109, the 110, the 115 — one of us has been at practically every house in the borough at one time or another. They want to build a new precinct in Queens, they better check first with the Diesels and Dennises to see if we’re ready to staff it. It wouldn’t be authentic without a Diesel or a Dennis.”

That said, the youngest uniformed Diesel lives in Selden on Long Island with his wife Jeanette and three children — Antonio (10), Michael (5) and Mia (3). Asked if he ever received advice about the job from his grandparents, father, or uncles, he says carefully: “I think they had different emphases among them. My paternal grandfather, for instance, always seemed to stress the community obligations of the cop on the beat.

For him, traffic was a way of being closer to people. He loved helping kids, loved hanging out with the teenagers to see what they were thinking, and that’s why he became a crossing guard after putting in his papers. My father, on the other hand, liked the excitement and nabbing perps. For him it was all about stopping crime. I’m not saying either ignored the other part of the job, but there was a definite difference in emphasis. Me? I’ve always looked at that difference as defining the scope of a cop’s job.”

And his own emphasis on the job? “I would hope it’s both, and the 110 in Jackson Heights is ideal for that. On the one hand, I’ve had more than my share of robberies and gun runs, and that’s working days for about four years. I’ve also been involved in stopping four burglaries in progress. But on the other hand, you’ve got one of the most ethnically mixed neighborhoods in the city in that area, so you better also learn how to listen, to know how to roll with situations that might outrage one group but not another.”

And the wisdom of his forbears? “My grandfather Mike Diesel always said two things,” he smiles. “The first was that a good cop never gets wet, hungry, or tired. And the other was that a good cop should always be out of sight but always available. I’m not sure how out of sight this family has been, but we’ve been pretty available.”