Police Academy

The Westtown-East Goshen Police Department is setting up a citizens' police academy, the latest step the force has taken to reach out to residents a few at a time. For a $25 fee, residents will get an inside look at the workings of Chester County's third-largest police department, after Tredyffrin's and West Chester's. "Hopefully, it will be a learning experience for them and a learning experience for us," said Sgt. Darren Stocker, program coordinator. The first 12-week session will start March 4. Residents can register through Feb. 15. Stocker said he hoped the course would dispel misconceptions - especially the one that crime does not happen in bedroom communities.

As Arnold Conoline takes the reins as chief of police, there is one important detail he must take care of: He will have to become a policeman. Though Conoline, 40, a sergeant in the Bucks County Sheriff's Department, was a part-time police officer in Tullytown for about a year in the 1980s, he is not certified now. So, the lifelong Lower Bucks resident will be required to go through the police academy and achieve certification by Dec. 27, 1996....

Crouched behind the door of the police car, with his weapon drawn, Thomas Thompson kept his eyes on the car in front that had been stopped in connection with an armed robbery. With loud, clear commands, Thompson, a cadet at the Delaware County Community College Municipal Police Academy, ordered the driver to show his hands, then slowly get out of the car. "Gun," he called out as he spotted a weapon in the driver's waistband. Thompson ordered the driver to keep his hands on his head and drop to his knees, crossing his ankles.

The young cadet stood straight - chin up, hands at side and shorts falling down. Uh-oh, Cpl. Brain Naylor was watching, and in his kindly, helpful way, pulled the cadet's pants up, all the way to his chest. "Now keep them up there the rest of the day," Naylor instructed. Such was life at Camp Cadet last week in Glenmoore - where boys between the ages of 11 and 13 experienced a little fun and a lot of discipline. "Ya know, there's a lot of discipline here," said Franklin Short, 13, during a class on the "crime scene" Friday morning.

With homicides at an eight-year high, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson said yesterday's 200 police promotions would get more people on the street. "These promotions were by necessity, because we need them on the street," Johnson said after the morning ceremony at Temple University's McGonigle Hall in North Philadelphia. Last month, the department brought on 80 new officers who graduated from the Police Academy and replenished a staff that has dwindled since 2003, Johnson said.

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.

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.

IT'S USUALLY TOUGH to get kicked out of Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of Police. You really have to screw up. Worse than, say, the cop who allegedly beat his girlfriend with a closed fist and left her a voice mail threatening to "stomp your f---ing heart out. " Or the officer convicted of child endangerment for pointing a loaded Glock at a kid who changed the radio station in his truck at the Police Academy. Or the cop who allegedly forced a suspect to perform oral sex on him in his police cruiser.

Many teams will be running in Sunday's 31st annual Blue Cross Broad Street Run, but none will be more competitive than the "Team of Heroes. " Five Philadelphia police veterans will be trying to outrun five police academy rookies. "I think we'll be starting a rivalry," Sgt. Matt Maguire, president of the police running club, said yesterday. "It's good we're getting the recruits involved because our club is getting old. Most of us are over 45. We're older than Donovan McNabb, and they got rid of him. " The veterans are John Gallagher, Paul Haye, Vicente Jamerez, Mike Slowsser and Mike Chitwood.

It's no coincidence this dummy looks out of sorts before the July 4 weekend. It took part in a Police Academy demonstration on illegal fireworks' dangers put on by Officer Pete King.