Couple of things with the 'story'. While the Police did a good thing, the other side of the story is the issue of the Police separating leaving one Officer by themselves. Currently there is a big push to not have single unit Policing regardless of the situation, this is as a matter of Officer Safety and this is what these two Police Officers have gone and done.
Management being management will always see the down side of everything and while there are other services that may be able to help with changing a tyre at times it is easier safer and better to just do it and get the job done.
Maybe things internally should have been handled better by Management but I wonder too how much of this 'story' is a media beat up to make it a story.