“The vast majority of NYPD police officers are honest and dedicated,” says Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, but Thursday’s charges against seven cops and a retired detective “dishonor the badge.” That’s putting it kindly.

Former Detective Ludwig Paz and his active-duty cronies ran an elaborate “string of brothels” in Queens and Brooklyn and on Long Island, as well as an illegal gambling “enterprise,” the indictment alleges.

“Paz used his knowledge of NYPD Vice procedures to set up protocols for new prostitution clients” so as to screen out detectives who might probe the operation, added Brown. Paz also got tips from “within the NYPD” to thwart police raids.

That may help explain why nailing the perps was so complex. The probe — run by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau Group 42 and the DA’s Integrity and Rackets and Organized Crime bureaus — took more than three years to complete, involving thousands of hours of surveillance in several locations and more than 50 wiretaps.

How big was the operation? The prostitution ring alone raked in $2 million from eight separate brothels between August 2016 and September 2017. Counting civilians, 49 already stand charged. And sources say cops are eyeing 30 more cops for questioning and possible arrest.

The initial tip came from an NYPD officer, but this still stands as a huge black mark on the department. These officers abused their powers, taking advantage of their knowledge of police procedures and plans to betray fellow cops and the public.

In the process, they undermined a department that’s working ceaselessly, and successfully, to bring crime to ever-lower levels.

As Internal Affairs Chief Joseph Reznick noted, the case came down to “disloyalty” (to the department) versus “friendship” (among the rogue cops).

Throw the book at every guilty party.