Elevated by Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, Ross took the reins on Monday while the department was in overdrive, conducting a feverish manhunt for a fugitive in the killing of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski.

Then a posse of officers making an arrest in an unrelated case was videotaped beating and kicking three suspects, generating embarrassing international attention for the department where Ross has worked for nearly two decades.

Ross managed the week's tumult with typical aplomb.

"It's been a very tense week – baptism by fire," Ross said Friday after Liczbinski's burial. "But we're up to the challenge. It goes with the territory of big-city policing."

With a manner as measured as his precisely clipped mustache, the Fern Rock native who now lives in Fox Chase has made few missteps in a meteoric career. At the age of 44, he has risen to a level one step shy of commissioner. He does not hide his ambition to move up.

"I'll be honest with you: One day, God willing, I'd like to be the police commissioner here, first and foremost," Ross said in an interview last week. "Or if not here, somewhere else."

With a little seasoning as the head of operations of the fourth-largest department in the country, Ross could be in a position to name his terms. "It certainly puts you in the driver's seat to compete with just about anybody in the country when you come out of a job like this."

Ross replaced the department's other three-star deputy, Patricia Giorgio-Fox, as the head of operations. Ramsey said Giorgio-Fox will now sit at his right hand and coordinate the department's units. While Ramsey appointed no first deputy, Ross' star is clearly rising.

A Central High School graduate who holds a master's degree in criminal justice from St. Joseph's University, Ross has held a number of high-profile positions in the department. As a young lieutenant in 2000, he commanded Mayor Street's security detail for six months before deciding the job did not suit him. He said it was a high-risk career move to request a transfer because it could be seen as a snub to the city's most powerful public official. "Just the mere notion of asking to leave that detail could be catastrophic," he said.

But then-Commissioner John Timoney and later Sylvester M. Johnson rewarded Ross with choice assignments. Johnson eventually promoted him to captain in command of the 14th District, one of the city's largest. Ross later moved to homicide and became one of the department's public faces, frequently appearing before cameras during news conferences when the city's homicide tally was rising.

In 2005, Street chose Ross as one of four deputy commissioners, vaulting him over nearly 40 inspectors and chief inspectors.

"Nobody was more surprised by that than me," said Ross.

It turns out that Ross, rather than offending the mayor's inner circle during his brief assignment to City Hall, scored some points.

Shawn Fordham, a Street political adviser, remembers Ross was "impressive. . . . He was just focused and sincere."

Ross credits Johnson with boosting his career by giving him plum assignments.

"I think Richie Ross is a very capable person and a very good person," said Johnson, who assigned Ross to develop a gun-control strategy and oversee internal affairs. "I think very highly of him."

Married with two children, Ross ascribes his good fortune to his religious faith - he's a member of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Mount Airy.

It also has something to do with discipline - he has a black belt in karate - and his ability to observe and learn.

"I'm very circumspect," he said. "I like to sit back and be watchful before I move. A lot of times it has kept me out of harm's way. I'm talking about even in the street, not rushing in and doing something, not rushing in and making decisions."

Early in his career, Ross got exposure to the upper echelons of the department through his friendship with fellow officers Willie Williams Jr. and Jimmy Clark Jr., whose fathers were then the department's commissioner and deputy commissioner. By observing the commanders, Ross was introduced to broader strategic aspects of policing, as well as how the department interacts with the city's political structure.

"You just kind of learn by osmosis," he said.

Now, Ross hopes to learn some new tricks at the direction of Ramsey, 58, who rose through the ranks of the Chicago Police Department before he was hired as chief in Washington 10 years ago. At the time, Ramsey was a few years older than Ross is now.

Ross said Ramsey told him about a month ago about his promotion, without revealing his entire department reorganization plan.

"Look, Commissioner Ramsey has been doing this a long time," said Ross. "As a result, he is smart enough to keep certain things to himself. I look at him as the consummate poker player. . . . You will read from him exactly what he wants you to read."

Ross knows a thing or two about playing the game, too.

Last year, with Johnson's term coming to an end and uncertainty about whom Nutter would name as commissioner, Ross quietly prepared for the worst - that he would lose his appointment as deputy commissioner.

So he decided to take the test for chief inspector, the highest Civil Service rank in the department. Since he had been elevated as a political appointment, Ross had skipped the test.

It was high-risk move. If he took the test and performed poorly, everybody would know - and it would provide evidence to naysayers who suggest he has catapulted up the ranks by guile and good looks.

Ross got the top score.

And last week, before Ramsey awarded him the third star on his collar, Ross was quietly reclassified on the Civil Service books as a chief inspector, a rank he achieved by merit.

"I would like you to put that in there," he said.