Philadelphia Police Chief, Ramsey, NOT Certified as Police Officer :: 03/16/2012

Stu Bykofsky: Certified or not, he's top cop

H E CARRIES a gun, he displays a badge, he wears a uniform, but Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey is not a certified police officer, technically speaking, and shouldn't be armed, badged and uniformed.

Since 2004, state law has required that anyone seeking to become a law-enforcement agent in the commonwealth must first pass a comprehensive test and be certified by the Municipal Police Officers' Training and Education Commission. The law applies to all police - campus, SEPTA, airport, sheriff - with "general police powers and charged with making arrests in connection with the enforcement of the criminal or traffic laws."

"The minute they wear the badge or the gun or present themselves as a police officer . . . they must have certification," the commission's administrative officer, Dr. E. Beverly Young, told me.

In a lovably Philadelphia mishmash, Ramsey is not certified.

Shortly after being named commissioner in January 2008, Ramsey was made aware of the law, he told me, but he also was told that two of his predecessors had not been certified and so, well, he just put it off.

With certificate in hand, Ramsey will be able to make arrests as a police officer, which he currently is not permitted to do. He'll also righteously and officially wear the badge, uniform and gun.