Police Academy

THE NUMBERS tell you that the city is back to where it was four and five years ago, back to a murder or two a day and an incomprehensible number of shootings. Faced with that grim reality, Mayor Nutter yesterday announced at a news conference at Strawberry Mansion High School that the city is, in so many words, now throwing the kitchen sink at its crime problems. There was no clever, catchall nickname for the assortment of initiatives, just a clear sense that city leaders are ready to try anything to escape being forever known as "Killadelphia.

CITY COUNCILWOMAN Marian Tasco will retire today, collect a six-figure pension payment and then return to work after she's sworn in on Monday to serve her seventh term. Because of her enrollment in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), Tasco will collect $478,057 within 45 days, according to Francis Bielli, executive director for the city's Board of Pensions and Retirement. Most of that money will roll over into a tax-deferred account, Bielli said. What can Marian do with her winnings?

When the city police officer entered the room, she saw LaKanya Eskridge, her face covered in blood. "There was blood coming from her eyes, her nose, her mouth," Officer Cheryl Newton testified in court. "There was blood all over the place. " Eskridge begged Newton not to leave her: "He's going to hit me again," Eskridge told Newton, according to court testimony. It was Eskridge, however, who was arrested that day, Nov. 22, 2010, at Beeber Middle School in the Overbrook area, where her son was a student.

Philadelphia's top public-safety official plans to recommend that the school district overhaul how it hires and trains school police, but says arming them is an issue that needs more discussion. Everett Gillison, the deputy mayor for public safety and Mayor Nutter's chief of staff, said in an interview that school police - like regular city police - should be trained for 32 weeks at the Police Academy and go through the same drug and criminal-background screening. Under the proposal, which would likely have to be approved by the School Reform Commission, prospective officers also would have to undergo psychological evaluations and take a polygraph test.

PHILADELPHIA Fallen officer honored A police-hero plaque will be unveiled today at the Police Academy, on State Road near Pennypack Street, Holmesburg, to honor Lt. Edward C. Dohrmann, who died of a heart attack on April 13, 1969, while helping an accident victim near that location. Dohrmann, 42, an 11-year veteran of the department, found the accident victim trapped in his car. While helping to free him, Dohrmann collapsed. He was survived by his wife, Winnie, and daughters Eileen, Joanne Doyle and Lynne Campisi.

Lined up in a four-by-four block in matching T-shirt uniforms, 16 youngsters - perhaps future police officers - saluted. "Vipers!" they shouted, signifying their group name. When a leader told them, "At ease," they put their hands behind their backs, feet apart, in a parade rest position. Next they exclaimed, "We run this!" - hissing the S like their slithering team name. Following typical police commands - with a few added elements for fun - the group is participating in the weeklong Philadelphia Youth Police Camp, which teaches about different police units through hands-on activities.

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.

IN ANY other year, the news that the city may be adding a class of police recruits sooner than anticipated would be cause for celebration. But the idea that the Philadelphia Police Department is about to get approval from the city to hire a class of recruits - after the past two classes were canceled due to budget woes - is cause for some concern . . . at least on one front. In the last year, the troubled department has seen 13 of its members arrested, with others under FBI investigation.

The Philadelphia Police Department will be faced with a raft of unexpected changes this year, all of which are shaping up to be good news. Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison discussed the planned moves - kept under wraps until now - on Friday. Fresh boots Ramsey said that the department expects to get approval from the city to hire a class of recruits in July after budget woes forced the city to cancel two classes scheduled to graduate this year.