Commish cracks down on 2 narcotics cops

Flexing his authoritative muscle, city Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey this week personally punished two narcotics cops in connection with racially offensive, Klan-related stickers found inside a locker in January.

On Thursday night, Ramsey transferred officers Scott Schweizer and Eric Dial out of the force's elite Narcotics Strike Force and put them back on routine patrol in districts where they got their start as rookies.

He also gave each officer a 20-day suspension without pay and prohibited them from using vacation days toward the unpaid leave.

Ramsey yesterday called the discipline "harsh" but "just" and said he stopped short of firing Schweizer and Dial because the officers "had no histories that would indicate that they engaged in any racist type of activities."

But going forward, Ramsey warned, if Schweizer and Dial are ever implicated in any racially-charged incidents, he would not hesitate to dismiss them.

"We live in a diverse society . . . Police officers can't harbor prejudices," Ramsey said in a phone interview. "We do have to serve everyone equally and fairly."

The disciplinary action capped a two-month internal investigation that began after superiors found two racist stickers inside Schweizer's locker: One sticker read: "White Power." The other depicted a cartoon of a man, half as an officer in uniform and half as a Klansman, with the words "Blue By Day - White By Night."

Schweizer's attorney, Allan J. Sagot, had maintained that his client was the victim of a practical joke played by another officer, who affixed the stickers to the outside of Schweizer's locker. Upon seeing the stickers, Schweizer quickly ripped them off his locker and stuck them inside, without thinking, Sagot said.

An investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau concluded that Dial had created the stickers and put them on Schweizer's locker in the narcotics strike force headquarters in Bridesburg, Ramsey said.

"Officer Dial does not admit to it but the evidence is there that he did in fact participate," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said a third officer who works with Dial "came forward" and "provided information about [Dial's] involvement."

"It's my understanding that [Dial] thought that this was a prank, but it was in incredibly poor taste," Ramsey said.

Efforts by the Daily News to reach Dial at work and at home were unsuccessful.

Sagot said he believes Schweizer will appeal the disciplinary actions against him to the police union.

The disciplinary action taken against Schweizer and Dial marked only the second time since Ramsey took office in January that he exercised a prerogative known as a "Commissioner's Direct Action," which empowers him to directly impose penalties against an officer and bypass a disciplinary hearing.

Rochelle Bilal, president of the Guardian Civic League, which represents 3,000 African-American officers in Philadelphia, said she hoped Ramsey's ruling "sends a message to the department that all jokes aren't funny."

Schweizer, 33, who had been on the strike force for the past seven years, will return to patrol in the 24th Police District, where he got his start as a rookie in 1997. The district encompasses the lower Northeast section of the city and includes the neighborhoods of Kensington, Harrowgate, Port Richmond and Juniata.

Dial, 32, a 10-year veteran of the force, will return to the 17th District in South Philly, where more than 80 percent of the residents are minorities and about 17 percent are white.

"I realize that there is a significant African-American population in each of those districts, but the reality is that there was nothing in the investigation that revealed that these officers really had racist attitudes," Ramsey said. "If these officers can't function then we'll have to take steps to see to it that they no longer serve as police officers." *