A New York Fire Department rescue diver, William Murphy, was nearly killed on Wednesday after police ignored a fire department warning and tossed a grappling hook into the water where he was hunting for a missing swimmer. A police officer told firefighters they should shut up, according to a fire captain’s account of the incident quoted by the Associated Press. Then the rope attached to the police grappling hook reportedly dislodged the fireman’s face mask, cutting off his air supply. Lack of coordination between police and fire personnel was one of the issues that emerged in need of attention after the September 11 attacks and rescue effort, and one might have hoped that it would be resolved by now. But Wednesday’s incident, and what the wire called yesterday’s “highly unusual public criticism of the police” by the fire commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, calls that into question. It’s long past time for the frontline members of the city’s finest and the bravest to put petty inter-service rivalries and power struggles aside and cooperate to put the priority on their own safety and that of the citizens they serve.

When the American military was grappling with similar rivalries among the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, Congress intervened to enact structural reforms. Congress created a powerful joint chiefs of staff and powerful theater commanders — General Tommy Franks was one — with control over integrated forces. If the police and fire commissioners and Mayor Bloomberg between them can’t straighten this out at the managerial, operational level, it’s worth exploring a legislative solution that would mandate an integrated command structure and provide real penalties for disobedience and real rewards for cooperation. If the city doesn’t get this one right, the next rescue diver, whether police officer or a firefighter, may not escape with his life as Mr. Murphy did. That’s a price too high. Let it be a warning.