Crowd Control

The city's Police Department is bringing its shields, helmets and psychology textbooks out of storage for a new training program that teaches supervisors how to control crowds and prevent major civil disturbances. Although riots have rarely posed a problem in Philadelphia since the hot summers of the 1960s, police officials believe that the crowd-control skills developed then need to be passed along to a new generation of officers. The effort was prompted largely by mistakes New York City police acknowledge making last year in handling a disturbance that grew violent.

Despite the request of more than 100 students and parents that a pay increase be given to the district's crowd-control employees, the Willingboro Board of Education last night voted 5-4 to forgo the increase and instead find people who would consent to work for the current fee. After the decision, board members recessed and engaged in a heated debate with members of the district's student council. The students expressed concern that athletic teams from other districts would be unwilling to play in Willingboro without the proper security.

The Willingboro school board once again will try to resolve the controversy surrounding crowd control at school sporting events when the board considers the validity of a personnel survey on the issue at its meeting tomorrow night. The survey, designed and distributed by board member Elmer F. Corda, has been criticized by some board members, who said it was biased and circulated to crowd-control workers without board approval. In late January, the board formed an investigative committee, headed by Corda, to gather data on 146 workers listed as available to supervise home sports events.

Two Folcroft police officers will be named to a Delaware County task force whose members will be especially trained in handling civil disobedience and crowd control. At Monday night's meeting, the Borough Council voted 6-0, with one member absent, to send two of the borough's nine officers to a course coordinated by the Delaware County District Attorney's Office and the Delaware County Police Chief's Association. The officers have not yet been selected. Councilman William O'Brien, chairman of the police committee, said the decision by the DA's office and the police chiefs' association to establish the task force stemmed from a demonstration in May by the Klu Klux Klan in Parkside in which one police officer was injured and five people were arrested.

The Willingboro school board last night voted 7-2 to deny a $3,864 out-of- court settlement with school principals who were asked to work in "crowd control" at sporting events last winter. Solicitor John T. Barbour said the principals were seeking an average of $25 an hour for the time served at sporting events. "The figure is roughly what they make as administrators," he said. In a heated debate last night, board member William Whitehurst argued that approving the settlement would undermine the board's authority.

With crowd-control workers demanding pay increases, the Willingboro Board of Education last night directed the superintendent to provide a contingency plan if the workers continue to refuse to staff athletic events. Superintendent Peter J. Romanoli requested that the board reconsider and offer a token salary increase to the 120 staff members and community residents who work crowd control at athletic events. However, board members declined to consider the request. Some board members also said that they were unsure that all 120 people had been contacted to work.

The Willingboro school board has closed the books on its nine-month-old legal battle with 10 district principals, voting 5-2 Monday night to approve a settlement that gives principals who worked crowd control at sporting events last winter $3,864 in pay. Principals were ordered to work crowd control when part-time employees refused to carry out their duties without a pay increase. The regular workers requested a pay increase from $12.50 to $22.50 per game. In what they said was a cost-conscious measure, board members denied the salary request of the workers in January.

In the chilly morning air Friday at a Bucks County farm, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey introduced the first five horses of his department's reinstated mounted police unit: Johnny, Pat, Stephen, Santiago, and Tiny Tim. The steeds are named in tribute to five officers who died in the line of duty in 2008 and 2009 - Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, Officer Isabel [Santiago] Nazario, Sgt. Patrick McDonald, Sgt. Timothy Simpson, and Officer John Pawlowski. "In getting the first few horses, it struck me that if the families would agree to it that it would be something to once again honor the service of their loved ones," Ramsey said, noting that the five officers had died during his tenure.

The surprising acquittal of a former Philadelphia police officer who was caught on video striking a woman at a Puerto Rican Day street party has revived an old Chico Marx line from the movie Duck Soup : "Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan decided Tuesday that seeing isn't necessarily believing in acquitting former police Lt. Jonathan Josey of assault charges. The ruling could pave the way for Josey, a 19-year veteran of the department who was fired after the Sept.

There will not be a repeat performance of the mass jump by hundreds of paratroopers into Valley Forge National Historical Park this year. And the jumpers are not pleased. "We have never been denied," said Joseph DeBartolo of Princeton, coordinator of the Army's 82d Airborne Division convention that is planned for Valley Forge in August. "This will be the first time the Air Force is grounded. We've never lost a battle," said DeBartolo, who belonged to the 82d Airborne during the Korean War. Though his request for the jump by 500 paratroopers into the park was denied in the fall, DeBartolo is making another pitch to gain the permission of Park Superintendent Warren D. Beach.

The surprising acquittal of a former Philadelphia police officer who was caught on video striking a woman at a Puerto Rican Day street party has revived an old Chico Marx line from the movie Duck Soup : "Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan decided Tuesday that seeing isn't necessarily believing in acquitting former police Lt. Jonathan Josey of assault charges. The ruling could pave the way for Josey, a 19-year veteran of the department who was fired after the Sept.

LONDON - NBC may beg to differ after a week of prime-time programming, but here in London, Friday felt like the real first day of the Olympics. The Olympic Park looked like old footage from Woodstock, as over 200,000 swarmed the grounds. The 80,000-seat stadium, silent since Paul McCartney's "Hey Jude" capped the opening ceremonies, was packed for the first two sessions of track and field competition. If British troops were needed, it was for crowd control - not to fill in the embarrassingly empty seats as they did throughout the first week.

They started at 10 a.m. Saturday, hitting the bars along South Street, in Old City, and elsewhere, looking for a bracer against the cold and wind on what promised to be a very long and party-filled day. By 3:30 p.m., however, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Santas, scantily clad elves, a few Waldos, and at least two snowmen - one abominable, the other more benign but wearing a hat with the word Guinness on it - had taken up positions in...

WARREN Messing has two overstuffed, timeworn scrapbooks, painstakingly compiled by his wife, that document his 23 years in the Philadelphia Police Department. There aren't any perp walks here, though. Instead, there's the stocky officer with Elizabeth Taylor. And Sylvester Stallone. And John Travolta. To name a few. Messing, on the force from 1960 to 1983, was a bodyguard to the famous and glamorous who traveled through Philadelphia in an era when star sightings and film crews weren't as common as they are today.

I HAVE considerable experience in crowd control - security at various clubs, concerts and sports events in the Philadelphia area. My girlfriend and I were at the 4th of July celebration at 18th and the Parkway as guests of a friend working as security at the outdoor hotel cafe there. There was a delay of about 45 minutes before the fireworks. I saw a crowd of 100 to 150 younger people in our vicinity who then converged on our corner like a school of fish. The group I was with, a half-dozen security types and some friends, were able to disperse the group before they were able to mob the cafe.

THE ICONIC STEPS of the Philadelphia Museum of Art felt extra celebratory yesterday as patriotic music blasted, bystanders savored free water ice, and the Police Department's Mounted Unit received a donation of two horse trailers. "This will be the first point of embarkation to support the Mounted Unit," said Jimmy Binns, whose CopWheels corporation donated the trailers, worth $14,000 each. The nonprofit, which works to provide equipment to police departments, also donated two motorcycles to the 19th Police District, in West Philly.

In the chilly morning air Friday at a Bucks County farm, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey introduced the first five horses of his department's reinstated mounted police unit: Johnny, Pat, Stephen, Santiago, and Tiny Tim. The steeds are named in tribute to five officers who died in the line of duty in 2008 and 2009 - Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, Officer Isabel [Santiago] Nazario, Sgt. Patrick McDonald, Sgt. Timothy Simpson, and Officer John Pawlowski. "In getting the first few horses, it struck me that if the families would agree to it that it would be something to once again honor the service of their loved ones," Ramsey said, noting that the five officers had died during his tenure.

The sponsor of a City Council proposal that would force promoters to get approval for every event they host says he's willing to make changes after talking with event promoters and entertainers. Councilman Bill Greenlee says he's in the process of making changes after meeting with promoters, who say the measure's requirements - including getting every event approved 30 days ahead of time - would be difficult to fulfill and would punish everyone for those that don't follow rules such as occupancy limits.

MONTREAL - The little kid emerges from the gate, struggling a bit with the weight of the lit brass torch he carries in both hands. He wears a No. 12 jersey, legend Yvan Cournoyer's name on the back. Bathed in a spotlight, he circles the ice slowly. The roar grows as he completes his lap and reaches the dot at center ice. He stands for a second, and the noise builds, and then the sound engulfs him as he leans over and touches the torch to the ice, which then ignites a digital representation of a flame that soon covers the playing surface.