Maybe the story about the good Mesa cop never surfaced last week because his exemplary work got squished in the mud of bad-cop allegations.

Or perhaps we didn’t learn earlier about the compassion that drove him to help a Mesa couple — a predicament that he could have easily shrugged off as non-police business because his good deed vanished in the consternation over allegations that a few cops had sex on the job.

Or possibly the mayor’s letter praising him for his “honest approach” and professional conduct beyond the call of duty didn’t get past a few municipal desks because so much time was spent dwelling on the stigma of scandal.

Or perchance we didn’t find out about the mayoral tribute on Aug. 5 to the aforementioned cop — bicycle officer Steve York — because he had been suspended the day before in connection with the sex scandal.

The accomplishments of York, which also include commendations in the past two years for saving lives — one of them a fellow officer’s — help us place in perspective an embarrassing series of events allegedly involving seven people on a day-in and dayout good police force of 1,100.

There is precious little pity for those sworn to protect us — often from ourselves — when they are derelict in their duty. Whether that negligence be 15 minutes of fun or sleeping on the job, it means that a soldier is AWOL from the front lines. And our perimeters of protection are weakened.

Fortunately, relatively few hours were expended for such alleged non-curricular activities because Police Chief Jan Strauss didn’t waste a minute getting to the bottom of a tip that some of her employees had behaved peculiarly on the job.

Neither did she dawdle in meting out suspensions when her Internal Affairs officers gathered evidence that five patrol officers, a recruit and a crime-scene tech had engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with one another while on duty.

Strauss has learned that one of the greatest benefits of not allowing the sun to set on complaints about unfit personnel behavior is that an immediate probe normally garners enough facts to disarm gossip.

A few of the quelled rumors included whispers that some sexual encounters were videotaped, that some were witnessed by non-participants and that at least one of the accused had resigned.

But there are apparently facts and observations in the 50-page Internal Affairs report to indicate that the degree of involvement varied from one accused participant to another.

“I do not intend to minimize the seriousness of the allegations, but it is critical to state that the majority of these contacts consisted of kissing and fondling and did not result in additional sexual activity,” Strauss wrote in a memo distributed to department personnel Friday.

In York’s case, “once everything comes out, he is such a minor player that you’ll have no interest in him,” said his attorney, David Michael Cantor.

I’ll wait for the facts.

But there is no denying that York’s personnel file, like the files of at least two other accused officers, contain commendations for rendering great service to the public.

Including the letter from hizzoner for York’s assistance in resolving a predicament between the couple and their landlord.

Including a July 2 letter to the mayor from the couple, John and Sherry Surdock, praising York “for his compassion and honest approach to our dilemma.”

“Officer York’s attitude of above-and-beyond the call of duty not only restored our faith in authority, but also the much needed and desired respect for the Mesa Police Department.”

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