Philly school district has new female top cop

The Philadelphia School District has a new safety chief - and its first female top cop.

Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Cynthia Dorsey took over as the district's top safety official effective Monday. She remains a city employee and reports to both Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and Superintendent William R. Hite Jr.

Dorsey replaces Chief Inspector Myron Patterson.

The shake-up is part of a series of moves announced by Ramsey last week. Patterson now heads one of the city's two Regional Operations Command centers; Dorsey, a 28-year veteran of the police force, comes to the district from the narcotics squad.

Dorsey, 57, is a Philadelphia native. She graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1974, and holds a degree from Temple University.

Dorsey once worked as a captain overseeing school police operations in West and Southwest Philadelphia.

She said she spent Monday at district headquarters being briefed by Patterson and was still getting her feet wet with the help of Brendan Lee, a district staffer who remains executive director of school safety.

But some priorities are clear, she said in an interview.

"Schools should be a safe haven where kids can learn. They should also be a safe place for administrators and teachers," Dorsey said.

She said she would continue the work of Patterson and of a committee that had begun an emphasis on violence prevention.

Though school crime is trending downward, safety has historically been an issue in the district.

"Assault on Learning," a 2011 Inquirer investigative series, found that violence in city schools was widespread and underreported. School police are also stretched thin, with the force cut by 91 officers this year to about 375.

Fixes have been implemented since the series was published, but the School Reform Commission has identified safety as one of its priorities and said more needs to be done.