Sure, it was embarrassing to the city when we found out that a hooker working undercover, in a manner of speaking, claimed to have had sex with two cops last fall while they were on duty. Even more embarrassing: She saved evidence of her illicit lawman-lovin' liaison. No, don't ask.

The city summarily suspended, and then obtained resignations from, Sgt. Keith Cheeks and Officer Demond Gooch. Now, the Attorney General's special prosecution unit is trying to decide whether or not to try them.

What possible good could come from that? I'm guessing that the media glare, the opprobrium of their colleagues and losing their jobs were all adequate punishments.

Go ahead, if you want, and pretend that we live in a world where everything works as it should and every copper is a conscientious Officer Friendly patrolling the beat with a smile.

Gooch and Cheeks displayed dreadful judgment and deserved punishment for what they did. Forcing them out of their jobs -- barring any other substantial miscues in their personnel files -- seems like overkill, though.

Dropping the hammer on them is understandable, of course, when you consider that city officials must be anxious to dispel external perceptions that Durham is the Triangle's anything-goes outpost.

Initiating the investigation to the streetwalker's complaints of officer misconduct was a good step in establishing public confidence.

It would've been easy for the department to try to discredit the woman's allegations instead of investigating them and turning evidence over to state investigators.

There are, to be sure, some offenses for which there can be no forgiveness, at least not of the municipal kind. Officers engaged in violent crimes, drugs or theft, for instance, have certainly forfeited their right to wear a badge.

A reality that can't be blithely dismissed is that the Durham Police Department is undermanned. The 495-officer department has 24 vacancies, requiring longer hours and more overtime for the officers. As in anything else, the longer officers are required to work to make up for the personnel shortage, the less the return: officers who pull double shifts, it seems, are more prone to impaired, bad decisions or slower reactions: both can be fatal when you are that thin blue line.

A suspension of a couple of weeks to a month or so might've been an adequate punishment -- again, assuming the other offenses in the sergeant's and officer's personnel jackets weren't major ones.

That, along with a stint in woman's shelter to give them some sensitivity to poor women's plight, would have given them time to reflect on their poor judgment and decide if being a cop was what they really wanted.

Save your letter-writing, phone-calling outrage. No one is saying it's cool for cops to have sex with prostitutes, at least not on duty.

What I am saying is that for the officers' offense -- and given the investment the city had already made in them -- there should have been at least the possibility for some punishment that fell short of firing.