Editorial:

Something special took place in Newport Beach on Tuesday morning.

Business and civic leaders gathered at the Balboa Bay Club & Resort to tip their collective hat to the rank and file of the city’s police force. We commend the Chamber of Commerce’s Commodores Club for hosting the 39th annual Police Appreciation Breakfast, main sponsor Wells Fargo and other businesses and individual sponsors in the community for making it happen. We hope that this tradition goes on.

We, too, would like to salute the men and women in blue who put their lives on the line to safeguard ours. Newport Beach — no matter how rich or politically powerful — could not provide its citizens with its enviable quality of life without the dedication, hard work and professionalism of its police officers.

It’s often too easy for the press to highlight “negative” stories about police. We have an obligation to report on officer-involved shootings, allegations of police misconduct and the like. But we mustn’t forget that most of the people who put on a uniform are decent and upstanding folks, who earn a living by doing a dangerous job.

Some of the real-life stories that interim Newport Beach Police Chief Robert M. Luman touched on as he handed out a series of awards to 24 sworn officers, reservists, civilians and volunteers, were chilling reminders of that risk.

For instance, Officers Josh Comte and Mike Fletcher received a Lifesaving Award for responding to a Newport Coast home invasion last year in which the alleged robbers tied up nine people and pistol-whipped some of them. Comte and Fletcher entered the house and safely extricated a severely injured victim before the SWAT team arrived. Another award, which was for Merit, went to six officers — Sgt. Jay Short, Sr. CSI Officer Don Gage, and Officers Dave Miner, Scott Smith, Glen Garrity and Michelle Shean — for their team work in investigating a case that led to the January 2009 arrest in Nevada of a suspected Newport Beach burglar, Richard William Abbott. According to Newport police, he was responsible for a string of burglaries amounting to more than $12 million in losses. A drop of blood recovered at the crime scene led to Abbott’s identification and arrest.

Yet, as much as the force is integral to the community’s fabric, police can’t do their jobs without your help. As one self-effacing 19-year veteran on the force put it at the breakfast table, he and his fellow officers couldn’t be as effective without the public’s assistance, which functions as a backup set of eyes and ears throughout the patchwork of neighborhoods that make up their beats.

So stay alert and vigilant. Do your part. And don’t forget to thank an officer for keeping you safe.