Police officers are never really off duty.

A case in point: on July 19, Chesterton Police Officer Erik Herbert was off duty and on his way to the gym in Portage, driving his marked squad car, when a woman flagged him down at the intersection of U.S. Highway 20 and Ind. 249.

Turns out, a man was having a cardiac arrest.

Herbert responded as he’d been trained to do, with CPR, and was on his way back to his squad car to fetch his department-issued automated external defibrillator when EMS arrived and took over patient care.

The patient, a Porter County resident, survived the incident, and at the Police Commission’s meeting Thursday evening Police Chief Dave Cincoski presented to Herbert the CPD’s Lifesaving Award and Medal “for extraordinary professional conduct.”

In the award’s citation, Cincoski noted that Herbert conducted CPR on the man for longer than four minutes and that his efforts have been certified as saving the patient’s life.

“This is a perfect example of why we want off-duty police officers to travel in their marked cars,” Member Mike Orlich said. “If Officer Herbert had been in his personal vehicle, the woman wouldn’t have known he’s a police officer and wouldn’t have flagged him down.”

“You’re never off duty,” Orlich added. “Even when you’re off duty.”