Discretion should never have been part of the equation for Fort Thomas Police Officer Adam Brown when he pulled over someone he thought was an obviously drunken driver Aug. 10 on Interstate 471.

The news came out Thursday that the impaired driver turned out to be off-duty Newport Police Sgt. Mark Crank, a fact Brown felt put him in "a horrible situation ... a moral dilemma," according to an audio/video recording of the scene made by Brown's cruiser. Brown ended up summoning his own sergeant to the scene, and they were eventually joined by two Newport police supervisors who finally drove Crank home.

Don't expect the same treatment if you get pulled over after weaving across the highway, smell like you've been drinking and refuse to take a sobriety test. Brown's "moral dilemma" was that he didn't like busting a fellow officer for driving under the influence. He made the wrong choice.

Consider some of the things Brown said to Crank at the scene, according to the police recording:

"The bottom line is you are DUI. You know it, and I know it."

"Your speech is extremely slurred."

"You reek of alcohol."

"I am obligated by state law, and I am obligated by ethics to treat you just like I do anybody else."

But he didn't.

We empower our police officers with discretion. We expect them to know when to use it. While a warning might slow someone down who has been going 10 mph over the speed limit, experience shows it is unlikely to faze someone who Brown indicated was so inebriated he had trouble standing up.

Now Brown and his sergeant, Todd Dedman, have been "counseled" by their chief for poor judgment. Crank is under investigation by the Newport department, and the fairness of the police has been called into question. It all could have been avoided if Brown had simply done what he clearly knew was right.