The arrests in the middle of last week of a Newtown Police sergeant and emergency services dispatcher on federal drug trafficking charges twisted the normal proud narrative we apply to local first responders to a point of painful fracture. The FBI, DEA, and Homeland Security investigations that led to charges against eight Connecticut men, including local police Sergeant Steven Santucci and dispatcher Jason Chickos, concluded that that they illegally distributed steroids and prescription narcotics — the kind of shady transactions we want the police to stop, not initiate.

It is always difficult for a police department to explain in-house criminal activity; to respond with embarrassed reactions to outside agencies’ arrests of its own personnel; to consider the damning evidence gathered so uncomfortably close to home; and, in the midst of this explaining, to assure the community that all the “bad apples” have been identified and removed — bad apples that as recently as last Monday were listed on the duty roster of good apples.

While observing the formal presumption of innocence for those charged, there remains the unfortunate task of dispelling the less formal and unfair presumption of guilt by association for those left on the job. Unfounded speculation tends to accumulate quickly along the more raucous threads of social media. A lot of exemplary professionals are tarred by the broad brush of cynicism that sweeps in behind any scandal involving public officials. The various investigations that led to the drug trafficking charges announced by the US Attorney’s office this week are continuing, which only feeds the uncertainty. People wonder, will any more apples be shaken from the tree?

One way to quickly reassure the public about the professionalism of its police department is for the Police Commission and top law enforcement officials to acknowledge that the community may have questions and concerns about what just happened. It is a good time for these officials to have a public conversation about the Newtown Police Department and not retreat behind closed doors to discuss the their problems as they did this week.

Since the investigations are continuing and the judicial process for those arrested is just beginning, there will be, of course, limits on how specific the discussions of these particular cases can be. Yet, the arrests do raise general questions about a largely circumspect police culture and, disturbingly, the now-apparent intersection of that culture with the use of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Sadly, investigations in several states in recent years have found evidence of police officers abusing steroids. It is not an isolated problem.

These are difficult conversations to have, especially when both the police force and the town it represents work so hard to reflect Newtown’s overall community values of responsibility, decency, and pride. Without serious public discussions about very real threats to those values, however, the words become less of a commitment and more of a catchphrase.