Cop Car

The Police Department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating the circumstances under which cops last November entered the home of a robbery suspect whom many claim is innocent. The Daily News reported last week that cops may have entered the North Philadelphia home of Yusuf Warrick, 19, under false pretenses while searching for a suspect in the robbery of a pizza delivery man on Nov. 4, 1998. Warrick was charged in that robbery and spent two months in jail, despite a shaky witness identification and an alibi from his teacher.

Three veteran cops and a civilian employee must have thought they had the perfect scam. Strip the forfeited cars that rolled into the Southwest police impoundment lot where they worked and replace the parts with cheap stuff. Then sell the good parts and pocket the cash. No one would know - the cars had no owners and were either going to auction or to the scrap heap. Their alleged scam backfired yesterday when the four were busted and charged with a host of theft charges, District Attorney Lynne Abraham and Police Commissioner John Timoney announced at a press conference.

A 2-year-old Gibbstown girl was in critical condition at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia after falling into a backyard pool in East Greenwich yesterday afternoon, police said. The toddler had wandered away from her mother, who was getting her 5-year-old son into a costume at a friend's home at 251 Kings Highway in East Greenwich. About six children and four adults were in the house preparing to go trick-or-treating, the friend, Susan Tighe, said. "We did not even see her go out the back door," Tighe said.

I'm not going to complain. That having been said, let me complain. At first, I thought that it was just me. Now I'm beginning to wonder. My point? Is there any room for the nice guy or the good Samaritan in this city? Let me explain: Example 1: On Thursday night, July 16, around 9:30, I witnessed a hit-and-run when a truck plowed into several parked cars at 5th and Market streets. The truck did not hesitate. It weaved around several cars and took off down 5th. I put on my flashers and followed the truck across the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Philadelphia firefighters work to put out a burning Delaware River Port Authority patrol car yesterday afternoon. Patrolman Brian Keister, 38, of New Jersey, was monitoring traffic in the parked car at the Philadelphia plaza of the Ben Franklin Bridge when it started to smoke. Keister got out and the car caught fire at about 5 p.m. He escaped unharmed. The car was destroyed.

When John F. Timoney was sworn in as Philadelphia police commissioner, he said it was inevitable that things would go wrong someday and he asked the public not to "rush to judgment. " Someday is now. Things have gone wrong. In just the last 48 hours: Television viewers saw, over and over, a homemade videotape showing a group of police officers subduing a man on Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park, the scene of the annual Greek Picnic, attended by thousands of African-American fraternity and sorority members.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ruled a police officer cannot be sued for injuries arising from a high-speed chase unless the officer's conduct is so extreme that it would "shock the conscience. " Ironically, while the case gives more protection to the police in pursuing suspects, the decision now permits a federal civil rights suit against the city on behalf of a father and infant son who were killed last August in an accident involving two police cars. Lemore Rich, 38, and Lemore Rich Jr., 7 months, were on the sidewalk at 22nd Street and Snyder Avenue when they were struck after two police cars responding to an emergency call collided in the intersection.

Cop cars careened through the wet city streets yesterday, skidding and banging into other cars in their mad rush to answer four assist-officer calls from a West Philadelphia neighborhood. It was a hectic Keystone Kops scene without Mack Sennett to film it. The object of the frantic flight through the drizzling rain turned out to be a mentally disabled man banging on doors on Pennington Road near Brookhaven and sniffing fumes from a spray can. He was armed with a pair of scissors.

She was a small-time thief who had successfully ducked the law for more than 17 months. Yesterday, Loretta Lynn Rogers not only failed to escape authorities, she gained permanent notoriety as the first fugitive to drive off in a Pennsylvania State Police car - while in handcuffs. Caught three hours later in Chester, still in handcuffs, Rogers, 31, of Bear, Del., now faces serious time for her brazen caper. "To my knowledge, this is the first case in this area where somebody commandeered a State Police vehicle," said Trooper Reynold Steptoe.

The commander of Philadelphia's toughest police district says he decided to barricade North Philadelphia's worst pocket of drug dealing his first day on the job. Capt. William Colarulo was touring the 25th Police District, headquartered at Front and Westmoreland streets, one day in August when a 19-year-old from Clifton Heights, Delaware County, rear-ended his cop car. "He was completely under the influence of drugs," Colarulo said. "He was in a stupor. I opened his car door and he practically fell out of the car. He had about 20 vials of crack sitting in plain view on the passenger side front seat.