A one-woman force protecting the elderly

Being a mother of two teenagers is tough enough, but for veteran Police Detective Rose DiLacqua, that's the easy part.

See, DiLacqua has no ordinary day job. This tough South Philadelphia woman protects a group of people who are often ignored - the elderly. And she does it alone.

DiLacqua is the sole member of the department's CARE Unit, or Crime Against the Retired and Elderly, and has investigated more than 3,000 cases and sent more than 1,000 perpetrators to jail.

Her job doesn't stop there.

DiLacqua, 49, is also president of the board of directors of Philadelphia Academy Charter School, in Somerton, where nearly 1,200 kindergartners through 12th-graders attend regular, gifted or special-education classes.

DiLacqua, who is married to Capt. Joe DiLacqua, of South Detectives, knows how to juggle a host of obligations with finesse. So on May 23, a panel of 14 community leaders and law enforcement officials voted to name DiLacqua a 2007 Fencl Award finalist.

The Daily News, which sponsors the award, will honor DiLacqua today along with the 12th District's Capt. Daniel MacDonald, another finalist, and the winner, Sgt. Kimberly Byrd. The ceremony will take place at Swann Caterers Waterfall Room in South Philadelphia.

"The most important quality of a police officer is fairness," said the sweet-voiced DiLacqua. "Treat people like how you would want to be treated."

DiLacqua credits her tight-knit Italian family for giving her a kind heart. She graduated from St. Maria Goretti High School and earned her undergraduate degree, with a concentration in criminal justice, from Villanova University.

She then taught first- and sixth-graders at her old elementary school, King of Peace, at 26th and Reed. Two years later, she left the classroom for the crack-infested city streets.

It was 1984 and DiLacqua became one of only a handful of female police rookies.

"I was always accepted as a woman," she said. "The best compliment was if someone called you 'kid' or said, 'She is a good cop.' "

"Good cop" was an understatement when it came to the young DiLacqua.

She spent five years as an undercover narc, infiltrating drug organizations by posing as a curious hustler with a knack for speaking Spanish.

In the late '80s, her investigating skills helped federal agents shutter a large South Philadelphia drug ring that made and sold methamphetamine.

DiLacqua was promoted to detective in 1990 and was given a VFW Post award for her street smarts. Two years later, police brass asked her to join the new CARE unit.

The unit investigates mainly fraud and identity theft in which con artists - under 60 - prey on victims - over 60 - by swindling their credit card information, Social Security numbers and cash. Other CARE cases involve robberies and abuse.

Two years ago she partnered with Detective Jerry Brennan, detailed to the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service, and now has access to federal intelligence, manpower and surveillance equipment.

All too often, the criminals are close relatives of the elderly victims, which angers DiLacqua all the more.

"The bright side is that Rose has a lot of arrests," Brennan said. "She probably has the most out of any detective in the entire city."

During her free moments, DiLacqua visits senior centers and teaches her elderly audiences, in both English and Spanish, how to spot a lurking thug.

"I always tell them to never count their money in the street. And always make sure no one is following behind them," she said.

Her colleagues in law enforcement frequently praise her passion for Philadelphia's estimated 178,000 seniors.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Diviny, chief of the Major Trials Unit, said DiLacqua is a prosecutor's dream.

"She knows how to put a case together," said Diviny, who has worked with DiLacqua for 17 years. "She has a caring heart that she brings to every case and is always willing to go the extra step." *