Ramsey: Better police recruits needed

EVEN NOW, a week after the fact, the whole thing sounds utterly insane.

Rudolph Gary Jr., 26, a Philadelphia police officer, was charged last Monday with murdering his estranged wife's brother over a spat that stemmed from a neighborhood water-gun fight.

The alleged crime earned Gary a spot in a venerable rogue's gallery of city cops who have been arrested during the last year for offenses that include murder, rape and drug dealing.

Each case has left police brass and citizens wondering the same thing: How did these guys become cops?

Law-enforcement experts say the explanation could simply be that a few bad apples are bound to turn up any time you look at a large organization, whether it's a police department, a Wall Street investment firm or a high-school teaching staff.

But the discussion doesn't end there. Experts say that tougher hiring standards and exhaustive background checks could weed out some people who should never be allowed to wear badges or carry guns.

Philadelphia police officials agree but note that there is no perfect solution.

"We're always trying to put more security steps and checks and balances in place so we can have a deeper scrutiny of applicants," said Inspector Sonia Velazquez, who's in charge of the Recruit Background Investigations Unit.

"But as we all know, people's character can change at any time."

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said improving the caliber of recruits is a top priority, which is why, beginning in 2012, recruits will have to be at least 21 years old, with three years of driving experience and two years' worth of college courses.

Currently, recruits can be as young as 19, with virtually no driving experience and a high-school education. "Your pool [of applicants] will be smaller, but richer," Ramsey said.

Even then, there's no way of knowing for sure if a cop won't one day flip his lid over something trivial - like a water-gun fight - and start shooting, as police say Gary did in South Philly on May 2.

The list of Philadelphia cops who have been charged with serious crimes in the last year is small, considering the size of the department's 6,000-strong force.

But their alleged actions stand out because of their severity - or stupidity - or both. The accused include:

_ Ex-cop Frank Tepper, who was charged on Feb. 8 with fatally shooting an unarmed man, William Panas Jr., 21, during a neighborhood fracas in Port Richmond on Nov. 21.

_ Adrian Makuch, a well-liked Crime Scene Unit officer who was charged Dec. 8 with trying to take nude photos of a 15-year-old boy and to buy sexual favors from an undercover cop who had posed as a teen.

_ Tyrone Wiggins, a former Daily News "Cop of the Week" who was arrested Nov. 19 - a day after he retired - and charged with raping a 12-year-old girl several times over the course of years.

_ Malaika Mebane, who was arrested Oct. 17, a day after another cop claimed she saw a female prisoner perform oral sex on Mebane in a holding cell, while he was on duty.

_ Alhinde Weems, who was arrested by FBI agents last spring and charged with leading a double life as a cocaine dealer who was planning to rob another dealer's stash house.

That list doesn't include officers currently under investigation, including the ongoing probe of alleged rogue narcotics officers written about by the Daily News in "Tainted Justice," its Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles.

Each incident caused police officials to frantically search the Background Investigations Unit's old files for a missed clue, a forgotten red flag . . . something.

"Every time we have an incident like Rudolph Gary, the first reaction is, 'How the heck did this person get hired?' " said Chief Inspector William Colarulo, who oversees the Police Academy.

"We want to 'Monday-morning quarterback' the type of investigations we've done to make sure it was a thorough as possible."

In Gary's case, his estranged wife, Shanae Williams, said she made several phone calls to the background unit when he was a recruit. Williams said that she probably would have warned investigators against hiring Gary but that her calls were never returned.

Colarulo said Williams' claims are being looked into. Velazquez, the inspector, said there "wasn't anything in [Gary's] files that would've been picked up on."

Velazquez ought to know. She spent four years as a detective in the background unit earlier in her career, and returned a few months ago as an inspector.

The vetting process faced by a recruit, she said, includes a long look into credit history, work history, possible criminal background and any involvement in civil lawsuits.

Investigators scrutinize the recruit's Facebook and MySpace accounts, the tattoos he or she might have and past residences. "You might have someone who is squeaky clean, but may live with a brother who's a known felon," Velazquez noted.

The background unit, which is composed of 25 cops, also examines a recruit's driving history, and bars or restaurants he or she visits. Velazquez said the unit conducts interviews with at least five family members and as many as 10 neighbors who know the recruit, who also undergoes a psychological test.

Every investigation is reviewed by a team of supervisors, including Velazquez and Colarulo.

"We do as intensive an investigation as you can do," Colarulo said, "but you're still dealing with human beings. There's always that possibility that the person is going to engage in behavior that's unethical or illegal after they graduate."

The department does not, however, polygraph recruits. Then-Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson eliminated lie-detector tests from the hiring process in 2002, claiming that qualified applicants weren't getting hired because they couldn't pass the polygraph.

That move might have been a mistake, according to Jason Abend, executive director of the National Law Enforcement Recruiters Association.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization instructs law-enforcement agencies across the country on the latest ways to attract and screen top talent.

Abend, a former FBI analyst and Secret Service agent, said the polygraph still serves a purpose. "Unions hate polygraphs, but it's a great tool," he said. "The device itself is meaningless, but if you have good interrogators, they can get a lot of answers."

Ramsey said he has mixed feelings about the polygraph. "It certainly can weed some people out, but it can't accurately predict future behavior," he said.

Abend said the Philadelphia Police Department has a reputation as having a "pretty good recruiting division."

So why all the rogue cops?

The answer, he said, could be traced to the pool the department recruits from and the pay, which he calls "abysmal." According to the Police Department's Web site, a recruit earns $40,036 while in the academy. After graduation, the salary increases to $42,813.

"If you're paying people well, they don't need to get involved in illegal activities," Abend said.

Other departments have higher standards.

Police in Chicago and New York require applicants to be 21 and to have completed 60 college credits. In lieu of college, the NYPD requires two years of active military service; Chicago police require four years of military service.

"If they have an education, there's less of a chance you'll see rapes and murders," Abend said. After a brief pause, he added: "Then again, Bernie Madoff had a pretty good education," referring to the jailed financial adviser who bilked thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.

Ramsey sees the need for higher-quality recruits. He said Mayor Nutter backs his plan to have the same education and age requirements as the NYPD in 2012. "We're enhancing the standards so we can get a richer pool of candidates," Ramsey said.

"Some [recruits] are coming in now at 19, which is too young. We get some people who never had a driver's license before," he said. "And you wonder why we have so many car accidents."

The department has also begun hiring officers from other counties. Thirty-two cops hired from other departments, called "lateral hires," graduated from the Police Academy on Friday.

Both moves represent pro-gress. But to ensure that only the best candidates are getting through, Abend said, police brass need to consistently refine how they screen applicants.

"Recruiting is a full-time job," he said. "You have to have guys that are gung-ho and constantly being trained on how to investigate people. You don't want to blow it."