Auburn Police should re-consider when it allows police officers to participate, on city time, in charitable endeavors. The department’s charity nearly cost one of its officers, Bud Caouette, dearly in New Hampshire recently.

Caouette was escorting a group of motorcycle-riding members of the New Auburn American Legion, when his police motorcycle collided with an automobile in Chester, N.H. He thankfully only suffered cuts and scrapes.

He was lucky. But his presence on an Auburn police detail, some 116 miles from the city, escorting riders from a private organization, begs a question: Did he need to be there in the first place?

That he could go, because of adequate police coverage in Auburn, or because it supported the American Legion, does not outweigh concerns about whether he should have gone. After budget debate in Auburn that featured teacher cuts and other sacrifices, a long city-funded motorcycle journey seems like largesse.

On occasion, police escorts are warranted and departments oblige. Lewiston, for example, does about six annually, for military, funereal or other reasons.

But without an apparent special, pressing need for an escort, the Auburn trip looks discretionary. The department could have supported the American Legion without the escort, and saved taxpayers the expense.