With a Hayden, Idaho, man dead and a Coeur d’Alene policeman gravely wounded, it may feel ironic to remember that the men and women who wear badges and carry guns and are entrusted to maintain public order are commonly called “peace” officers.

There was nothing peaceful about the confrontation that broke out early Tuesday morning at a home in Hayden where three officers were questioning Michael Madonna about a hit-and-run accident. Madonna, who had clashed with police before, abruptly ran into the house, where he kept a loaded handgun. He grabbed it from a coffee table, whirled and started firing at officers who had chased him. From close range, he shot Coeur d’Alene Officer Michael Kralicek in the face. The other officers, both Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies, returned fire, killing Madonna.

Kralicek, now at Harborview Hospital in Seattle, had no reason to expect at the beginning of his shift on Monday that it would end in violence. Yet he had no reason not to. That’s the unpredictable nature of law enforcement work, in which some people complete their careers without ever shooting anyone or being shot at – but where the concept of a routine stop is considered a myth. The potential for life-threatening drama lurks behind every incident.

The fact that most days are relatively trouble-free is a tribute to both the professionalism of law enforcement agencies and officers and the informal partnership they maintain with the communities they serve. Societies function because most people rely on the law and comply with it voluntarily. The police are there as what criminologist George Kelling calls the “or else” of society.

The relationship between the community and the police officer was at play in Spokane this week when a Monday-morning fire in the West Central neighborhood displaced the COPS West community policing center. By day’s end, the substation had new quarters in a house owned by the West Central Community Center.

“It just demonstrates the spirit of the West Central community and the people who live there,” said Jack Brucick, chairman of the Spokane Community Oriented Policing Board. That spirit goes back more than a decade to when residents of one of the city’s most crime-ridden areas teamed up with police to promote order.

The sense of oneness between citizens and police officers tends to be overlooked on a daily basis, even strained – especially when the citizen’s contact consists of being pulled over for a traffic infraction.

Then, along comes an “or else” moment, like the one involving Officer Kralicek shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning, and we get a sobering reminder of the sacrifice that dedicated law enforcement officers volunteer to make – to keep the peace.