Police Academy

When Hugh Wilson made the first Police Academy in 1984, the basic comic idea was that the city had abandoned all physical and psychological standards for entrance to its law-enforcement academy. The movie's sequels have proved that much the same policy is in force in the nation's movie theaters. Police Academy films have become one of the wrongs of spring. Now as the weather turns warmer, dread springs eternal. The Phillies come north with another team guaranteed to have grown men cringing by early May, and Warner Bros.

When Bubba Smith played football for Michigan State, the fans used to urge the giant defensive lineman to "Kill, Bubba, kill!" Bubba often nearly obliged, but it is too much to hope that he might turn on the makers of the Police Academy series with the same homicidal flair he once brought to the pursuit of enemy quarterbacks. For one thing, the astounding success of this witless series assures Smith and the other graduates a very good living. A Police Academy movie has now become one of the wrongs of spring.

You can have being worked over with a nightstick or 10 hours of third- degree interrogation. For sheer police brutality, nothing comes close to sitting through Police Academy 5. In fact, it's so dreadful that I would recommend seeing it only with an attorney present. Except that no one - not even a lawyer - should be subjected to such cruel and unusual punishment. Anyone who has made it past 11 - in years or IQ - will know that you don't go to a Police Academy movie unprepared.

Cynics may scoff, but there really is one brief and shining moment in Police Academy 3: Back in Training. It comes at the opening of the film, when the numbskull governor of California suffers an attack of taste and says it's time to close down the academy. But before grown-ups have a chance to rise as one and cheer to the rafters, this is revealed to be another Hollywood lie on the order of "Steven (Spielberg) read your script, and he loves it. " The Police Academy series tries to get more out of old garbage than the nearest recycling plant.

The cameras were clicking, the videotapes were rolling, and the audience was on its feet, applauding, as 61 men and 29 women filed into the Philadelphia Civic Center yesterday to become members of the city's Police Department. The VIPs - including Mayor Goode and Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams - saluted the courage and determination of the new officers. Besides the speeches, there was rousing music from the Pasttimers, a police band. It was a day to celebrate - for all concerned.

David Wurzburg of Hainesport said his father had been trying for years to get him to cut his shoulder-length hair. "I had never had short hair before, and I was always afraid to get it cut, sir!" said the 18-year-old, who now sports a high-and-tight buzz cut. For the last week, Wurzburg, a heavy cigarette smoker, has been waking up each morning at 5:30, performing strenuous calisthenics and running 1.5 miles each day. He's also started addressing people he doesn't know as "Sir.

The Camden County Prosecutor's Office and Camden County College have created a partnership to keep the county's police academy functioning, officials said Monday. Earl Coxson, who ran the academy as an employee of the Prosecutor's Office, was laid off this year, possibly jeopardizing the operations of the academy. Under the agreement, effective July 1, the college will assume Coxson's annual salary of about $60,000, according to the Camden County Board of Freeholders. The Prosecutor's Office will continue to assign an investigator and a clerical employee to staff the academy, which will not accept new recruits until January.

Police Officer Gerald Gallagher was like a proud parent. For the past five months he had helped guide 72 men and women through the rigors of Police Academy training. Yesterday, as they lined up to receive their diplomas, Gallagher reached out to shake their hands, slap their backs, and wish them "godspeed. " When it was Officer Franklin Steed's turn to thank Gallagher, he ignored his outstretched hand, threw his arms around the veteran cop, and hugged him instead. "He was like a father to me," said Steed, 30. If making it through the academy was a strain, it did not show on the faces of the 49 men and 23 women who graduated yesterday.

"Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol," a comedy starring Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, G.W. Bailey, Bobcat Goldthwait and George Gaynes. Directed by Jim Drake. Screenplay by Gene Quintano. Running time: 87 minutes. A Warner Brothers release. "Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol" has jokes about bodily (and birds') functions, a pompous guy whose pants rip and who gets a bullhorn Krazy-glued to his face, some excellent skateboarding, rock music, a joke about Mace deodorant, a guy (Michael Winslow)

This week, the school board placed a 17-year-old male student on a year's homebound instruction for his role in a shooting incident at the high school. The student, investigators said, fired a series of shots from a .38-caliber pistol into the air, apparently to impress his friends. For some, that incident just last month was the latest example of why some sort of police presence is needed in Willingboro schools. And so audience members applauded Monday night when the school board, in a 6-3 vote, approved setting up a version of campus police at the district's secondary schools.

Today on PhillyDailyNews.com: View an interactive timeline looking back at the troubled career of former Police Officer Richard DeCoatsworth. IN 2008, AFTER the sentencing of a man who shot him in the face, Richard DeCoatsworth, who was then a Philly cop, said: "That young man's life is over now. He's going to have to find some way to get used to his new home. I'm sure the guys up there [in state prison] can't wait to meet him. " But this weekend, it was DeCoatsworth who found a new home behind bars, after he was charged with 32 crimes - including promoting prostitution, human trafficking and rape - for two cases involving alleged heinous acts against women.

MIKE CHITWOOD was a rookie cop fresh out of the Police Academy on Nov. 7, 1964, when he was walking a beat on Susquehanna Avenue in North Philadelphia with a seasoned officer who was teaching him the ropes. Chitwood - who went on to become a much-honored Philly cop and is now the police superintendent of Upper Darby Township - and his partner, Mike Muto, might not have been prepared for heroics that day, but that's what they got. On the 1600 block, they saw flames shooting out of a house and a woman with a baby hanging onto a rope between the second and third floors, calling for help.

What would it take to become commissioner of the New York Police Department within 10 years of graduating from the police academy? What kind of person could accomplish so much - and all before his 35th birthday? What drive, determination, force of will? And what sacrifices? What ruthlessness? That's the fascinating premise of the new CBS police procedural Golden Boy , which premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. It's one of two new prime-time cop shows this week - the other is the TNT reality series Boston's Finest , which premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. Golden Boy is the latest addition to CBS' cop-glutted schedule and, after Blue Bloods , its second about a New York City police commissioner.

To his comrades, he was "the Iron Man" of the Philadelphia Police Department. To himself, Sgt. Albert Gramlich is simply "fortunate" to have served a three-decade career in good health. "I just didn't get sick with anything," Gramlich said Friday as he clocked in his last day on the job. After 31 years on the force without taking a sick day off work, Gramlich said, his emotions ranged from "excited" to "nervous" as he paddled off to retirement. And a grand retirement it will be. "I'm going to travel around the country and enjoy myself," he said.

FRANK SALLEY was one dapper cop. His neatly pressed uniform was highlighted by white shirts heavily starched. And along with his sartorial splendor, Frank was the kind of guy you wanted with you, whether at a party because of his delightful personality, or on the job because of his courage and sense of duty. Frank was a peace officer, with emphasis on the "peace. " He believed that there were very few situations that required force, and he was proud of the fact that he had never fired his pistol.

NEW YORK - For New York City, it wasn't an unusual sight: a possibly mentally ill woman pacing and mumbling to herself on an elevated subway station platform. The woman eventually took a seat on a bench Thursday night, witnesses later said. Then, without any warning or provocation, she sprang up and used both hands to shove a man into the path of an oncoming train. As police sought on Friday to locate the unidentified woman, Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents to keep the second fatal subway shove in the city this month in perspective.

PITTSBURGH - A black man contends that he was fired at the end of his 18-month probationary period as a state trooper over false claims that he did not properly write reports and sometimes used black English when he did, according to a federal lawsuit. The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of William Peake, 29, of Sewickley, who graduated from the police academy in May 2009 and soon after was stationed at the Uniontown barracks, at which, his attorney contends, nearly all troopers are white.

The Marquis apartment complex in King of Prussia was draped with yellow crime-scene tape Tuesday as firefighters drained the pool, police academy cadets swept lawns and drainage ditches, and law enforcement authorities continued looking into the abduction of a 10-month-old girl and the slaying of her grandmother. Local, state, and federal authorities are jointly investigating the abduction of the girl, Saanvi Venna, and the killing of her grandmother, Satayvathi Venna, 61. Authorities gave few details of either incident Tuesday, citing concern for the baby's safety.

The Marquis apartment complex in King of Prussia was draped with yellow crime-scene tape Tuesday as firefighters drained the pool, police academy cadets swept lawns and drainage ditches, and law enforcement authorities continued looking into the abduction of a 10-month-old girl and the slaying of her grandmother. Local, state, and federal authorities are jointly investigating the abduction of the girl, Saanvi Venna, and the killing of her grandmother, Satayvathi Venna, 61. Authorities gave few details of either crime Tuesday, citing concern for the baby's safety.

When William H. Jones worked undercover as a Philadelphia police officer, he once had to dress as a priest. With a Bible. And a gun. "It was a robbery-prevention unit," his son Timothy said, and Mr. Jones had "a snub-nosed .38 that he carried in a Bible. " It was a Bible "that he cut the pages out of" so that the .38 fit inside, his son said. "I remember the Bible being around the house. " On Saturday, Sept. 15, Mr. Jones, 72, a Philadelphia police officer from 1969 to 1992, died of cancer at his home in Springville, Susquehanna County.