And that's true for every officer, no matter their rank, role, or number of legs.
On Tuesday, the NYPD is breathing a sigh of relief, especially those who work alongside Mulk, a K-9 who just survived a life-threatening scare.
Her courage in the face of danger saved lives.
Narcan, which can stop a potentially fatal opioid overdose, is a nasal spray used on humans.
"I closed one nostril with my thumb and then I would administer this," NYPD Detective Katherine Gill said.
NYPD Detective Katherine Gill had to act fast when she noticed something was wrong with her K-9 partner Mulk.
"She was giving a 1,000-yard stare basically and her ears were back and she wasn't responding to my voice," Gill said.
The pair is part of a specialized federal task force, which earlier this month was working inside a building on Prospect Avenue in the Bronx.
The 6-year-old Dutch Sheppard is trained to find narcotics and send very specific signals when she's found something.
After sniffing the doorframe of a second-floor apartment, she got a hit but almost right away, Detective Gill knew Mulk had been exposed to Fentanyl, in its most lethal form, which is a powder.
"We're not sure how it gets to her, if it's through her paw pads or panting on her tongue but that's probably the worst kind for us," Gill said.
She administered that dose of Narcan.
"Is she going to make it? Was that enough? Or is this one of the types of fentanyl that's resistant to Narcan?" Gill said.
But this time it worked.
Mulk played a critical role in a larger bust that uncovered fentanyl with a street value of $7.5 million.
In no time, Mulk was back to her old self.
"She sleeps in a dog bed right next to my bed; she's like having another child," Gill said.
To date, no NYPD K-9s have died because of fentanyl poisoning.