Top-cop Ramsey a hall-of-famer

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has spent most of the summer dealing with one headache after another.

One week, he was digesting deeper cuts to the department's already-trimmed budget. The next, he was addressing scandals created by a string of crooked cops.

Today, he's getting a break - and a reason to smile.

Ramsey will be among the inaugural class of inductees to George Mason University's Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame.

Philly's top cop is being hailed for work he has done here and in Chicago and Washington, where he spent a majority of his lengthy law-enforcement career.

Ramsey will be joined in the Hall of Fame by a host of other top cops, including Commissioner Edward Davis, of the Boston Police Department, and Chief James Bueerman, of the Redlands, Calif. Police Department.

Former city managing director Camille Barnett, who worked with Ramsey in Philly and D.C., is among those who offered praises on George Mason's Web site.

"In both cases, he came in ready for a challenge - murder and shooting rates that were spiraling out of control," Barnett wrote.

Ramsey, who started his police career in Chicago in 1968, later helped author that department's community policing strategy.

In Washington, he focused on solving community problems and implementing up-to-date communications and information technology, the university said.

Since he arrived in Philadelphia two years ago, Ramsey has emphasized having cops work foot beats and targeted notoriously violent neighborhoods that are often home to repeat offenders.