The Portland City Council on Monday honored a police officer who made headlines last week for showing compassion to a heroin addict, who wrote an anonymous letter that went viral on the Internet.

Officer Sean Hurley made news when the police department posted on its Facebook page a letter written by a 30-year-old man who described how Hurley showed compassion and helped him last month during a desperate time.

“In that moment, he not only restored my faith in police officers – but he also restored my faith in humanity on that day,” the anonymous author wrote about Hurley. The man said in his letter that he has been clean since that day.

The item got more than 3,000 “likes” on the department’s Facebook page, and got national news coverage.

But that incident wasn’t what led the council to honor Hurley on Monday night.

Hurley and Officer Matthew Rider were Officers of the Month of August, for helping to resolve a murder investigation and making a series of other arrests. Neither Mayor Michael Brennan nor any councilors referred to the anonymous letter.

The council’s proclamation says Hurley and Rider played “instrumental roles in identifying and ultimately arresting three murder suspects in connection with a recent homicide.” It also says they made “three drug arrests, two warrant arrests, five criminal trespass arrests, two theft arrests and one arrest for reckless conduct with a weapon.”

Hurley and Rider aren’t exactly hardened veterans. Hurley joined the force in 2011; Rider joined in 2012.

The proclamation doesn’t mention Hurley’s well-documented compassionate side. But it’s hard to imagine councilors don’t know all about it.

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