Police Captain

Surveillance footage taken from inside the posh Piazza at Schmidts in Northern Liberties captured what a police captain called the "organized, calculated" shootings of Saturday's two homicide victims, 34-year-old Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore, 40. Thal and Gilmore were ambushed and gunned down outside Thal's apartment by three men who lay in wait and cornered them in the hallway, police said yesterday. A fourth man acted as a lookout. The stakeout and shooting took about 30 minutes.

PHILADELPHIA police won't be the only law-enforcement people on Broad Street Sunday. Mike Chitwood, a former Philly police lieutenant who's now the chief in Daytona Beach, Fla., and 10 Daytona officers are running in the 28th annual Blue Cross Broad Street Run. Chitwood, 43, is a Broad Street Run veteran. He has run 19 in a row, 23 overall (best time: 67 minutes). The other Daytona police officers are making their Broad Street debuts. "Only a few have run 10 miles," Chitwood said.

Here are two tales from the Book of Brainless Law-Breakers - both committed their crimes within handcuffing distance of police officers. In Southwest Philadelphia, a drunk driver arguing with a woman in another car early yesterday lost control, steered his vehicle onto the sidewalk and slammed into the headquarters of Southwest Detectives and the 18th Police District, said Lt. Joel Dales, a district supervisor. Justin Hudson, 22, of Allison Street near Christian, was charged with driving under the influence after the 1:15 a.m. incident on Pine Street near 55th, police said.

Residents of Southwest Center City met the 17th Police District's new commander, Capt. Kevin J. Bethel, at a community meeting last night - and they gave him an earful. They asked about teens loitering on the street, children riding their bikes late at night, and fast-food takeouts open after the 11 p.m. curfew. "It's a nice neighborhood. It's a growing neighborhood. It's going to get better, but we have to deal with the crime," Eve Lewis, director of the meeting's sponsor, the Neighborhood Advisory Council for the South of South Neighborhood Association, said before the session.

In a break with the past, Camden will name a civilian today to lead its beleaguered Police Department. According to officials familiar with the appointment, he is Robert L. Stewart, a former chief of police of Ormond Beach, Fla., and a police captain in Washington. Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi declined to comment yesterday, but a spokesman said an announcement on the department's future leadership would be made this morning. Stewart's job title had not been determined last night.

Delaware County prosecutors say they will investigate allegations that Upper Darby police officials squashed a 2003 drunken-driving arrest to help "a friend" of the police department. In a one-paragraph statement, District Attorney G. Michael Green said he had ordered his office's Special Investigative Unit to review the Feb. 27, 2003, arrest of Dante Panichi 3d. Green was responding to an article in Thursday's Inquirer detailing how Panichi's arrest had come undone. Panichi, a suburban cement contractor, had three drunken-driving convictions and could have faced up to five years in jail if the 2003 arrest had led to another conviction.

The driver of the silver Buick was like a poster child for laws against drunken driving. He reeked of beer and refused a sobriety test. He had been weaving down Route 1 in Upper Darby when a policeman arrested him, just before midnight on Feb. 27, 2003. His record included three drunken-driving convictions and a crash that sent a woman to the hospital. If the new arrest stuck, he would face up to five years in jail. But the new arrest went away. The Upper Darby Police Department says the case fell through the cracks.

The wise decision by former Philadelphia police mob-fighter Francis P. Friel to withdraw from his appointment to head the state's new Gaming Control Board is best for Pennsylvania's fledgling casino gambling industry. It means the board may not begin its work on schedule. But replacing Friel avoids the additional delays - and distraction - that seemed inevitable, given the drumbeat of politically partisan criticism by Harrisburg lawmakers and gaming opponents. Now Gov. Rendell can find a replacement who will steer clear of all that - if the governor and his staff do a far better job of vetting the next candidate.

By most standards, the career of Philadelphia Police Capt. Khalid Mohammed Syed would be considered a success story. A native of Pakistan and a U.S. citizen since 1981, Syed, 49, served eight years in the Army and attained the rank of captain. He joined the Philadelphia police in 1990 and became a sergeant within four years, a lieutenant in seven and, last year, a captain. To Syed, however, that rise masked a constant struggle against ethnic and religious bias, a struggle that only got worse after the terrorist attacks of Sept.

When she was a girl growing up in East Camden, Capt. Cassandra Smith wondered why she never saw any policewomen walking a beat. "I thought, 'What a great thing it must be to be a police officer,' " Smith said, when asked why she joined the Camden City Police Department 17 1/2 years ago. "I wanted to help people," she said. "I wanted to make a contribution to the community. " During a promotions ceremony at Camden's City Hall yesterday, Smith, 46, was hailed as the first woman in the city's history to earn the rank of captain.