There’s plenty of credit to go around for the fact that New York didn’t have rioting or widespread looting during last week’s blackout. These columns have al ready praised Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, and not least, New Yorkers themselves. David Greenberg of Slate, in a column we published Monday, credits immigration and prosperity. Urbanist Fred Siegel mentions the increase in home ownership.

But one factor that hasn’t gained the attention it deserves is the leadership of the city’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly. Mr. Kelly is a self-effacing man, but he, as much as anyone, deserves credit for how well the city got through the hours of darkness. It wasn’t just the show of manpower by the police, impressive though that was. The finest turned out in great numbers, but also with a non-combative attitude that served to reassure citizens rather than raise anxiety. It was also the hours that Mr. Kelly had put in quietly and patiently before the blackout, working to build relationships and confidence between the police and the city’s minority communities. There was Mr. Kelly’s meeting last summer with the leadership of New York’s Evangelical Association of the Haitian Clergy. Another last spring with the United African Congress, a group of immigrants from Africa. And those are just the ones that made our paper. Mr. Kelly has a history of working for racial harmony dating back to his work during the 1991 Crown Height riots. His more than 30 years as a member of the police force mean that he has a deep knowledge of the city, the force’s personnel, and the potential for situations like last week’s blackout to go wrong if they are mishandled. There’s no way to tell what would have happened if last week’s blackout had taken place during the height of protest over the Amadou Diallo or Patrick Dorismond cases during Mr. Giuliani’s administration. Much of the outcry over those cases was manufactured, and Mr. Giuliani does deserve his share of credit for the increase in civility and the decrease in crime. But when the history of the blackout of 2003 is written, there will be no doubt that Raymond Kelly will be one of the heroes.