Sheila Veerapen waited eagerly outside police headquarters for her husband, Sean, to return. It was a long 11 days since she had last seen him. He was one of 180 New York Police Department officers arriving home yesterday after assisting Louisiana police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“I couldn’t wait to get here,” Ms. Veerapen said, “to take him home.”

Both Mr. Veerapen, 37, and Ms. Veerapen, 38, are reservists and police officers. They met in the Police Academy more than 11 years ago and wed six years later. They have three children. Ms. Veerapen works in the Queens County Courthouse and Mr. Veerapen is assigned to a highway patrol unit in Queens.

New York’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, greeted the officers as they arrived at police headquarters. Their most significant duty, Mr. Kelly said, was “to give the New Orleans officers some respite.” The police commissioner said the department would honor the officers with specially designed brass bars.

Fully 300 police officers from the New York department traveled to Louisiana to help in relief efforts, in part as repayment for aid provided after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York. Mr. Kelly said it was not clear when the 120 officers who remained in Louisiana would return.

The officers’ duties in downtown New Orleans included patrolling, performing rescues, assisting in arrests, and delivering critical supplies, officials said.

One detective from the Midtown North Detective Squad described how New York officers and a Minnesota animal-rescue organization collaborated to save the lives of 15 stray dogs.

“These little guys were so happy,” Detective Joseph Cornetta said by telephone from Louisiana, adding, “It was just a matter of time before they were going to be alligator bait.”

The officers traveled to and in Louisiana in Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses, each operated by two volunteer MTA bus drivers, according to one driver, Norman Bennett.

Explaining why he chose to go on the mission, Mr. Bennett, 45, said: “If I lived my whole life and never did anything for anyone else, what did I do?”

About 2,000 men and women applied for the 300 spots, Mr. Kelly said. One member of the 19th Precinct Detective Squad felt a calling to go.

“It’s tough to stand by – especially a cop – and watch something like that,” Sergeant Peter Panuccio, 45, said. “How could you not go?”