Things at the Swissvale police department keep changing.

On Aug. 3, borough council appointed James Ohrman, a 30-year police veteran who had been chief from 1990 to 1999, to be acting police chief while the search for a permanent replacement for Dominic Nuzzo continues. Nuzzo retired July 16.

Since taking the job, Ohrman has decided to make changes and address ongoing issues.

One of his first moves was to assign a detective to handle more complex cases.

"It's a real necessity for us because there are too many cases where a report is taken and then stuck in a drawer," he said last Thursday. "No longer are we taking a report and letting it lay until information comes in on it."

Nearly three weeks ago, Ohrman gave senior Officer John Corrado the job.

Formerly a part-time officer with East Pittsburgh and Versailles police, Corrado, 35, has been in law enforcement for nine years and was hired full time with Swissvale in 2000.

He said he is now working 10 to 20 active cases, including incidents of fraud, forgery and stalking.

"I just obtained an arrest warrant on the stalker," he said.

In time, Ohrman hopes Corrado will be ready to take up cold cases like the 1989 beating death of Robert Kart, 63, and the 2001 shooting of Jaleel and Rasheeda Bell.

Police found Kart dead June 29, 1989, in his Slush Puppie distributorship on McCague Street. It was believed that robbery had been the motive.

For a while, police suspected his son, Herbert, of hiring a hit man to kill his father. However, the charge of solicitation to commit murder was withdrawn because its two-year statute of limitations ended. No one was ever charged with the murder.

On Friday, when he heard that Ohrman hopes to solve the killing, Herbert Kart had a mixed response.

"The police botched it," the Churchill resident said, adding that he felt that the authorities had turned their backs on the case for 16 years. "I know that my mother's terribly bitter about this and so am I, frankly. Everybody screwed up. Instead of finding the person who really did it, they accused me."

Still, he said bringing about justice might offer a modicum of solace to him and his mother, Sella. "That would be the greatest thing in the world that I could close my eyes on this world and know that someone had to answer for this injustice that was done to our family."

In the case of the Bell siblings, the two were killed in Rasheeda's apartment on Aug. 11, 2001.

Their mother, Deborah Tarrant-Bell, of Sheraden, says moments before gunfire broke out, Rasheeda had been on the telephone with Tarrant-Bell saying that two strangers had come in with Jaleel. Then she screamed.

Police say Jaleel died because he had dealt drugs and knew dangerous people. But Rasheeda died because she saw the murderers.

Police have yet to arrest anyone, said Tarrant-Bell. She said she calls county investigators every few months hoping for a resolution to the case. They tell her that they have a suspect in mind, but cannot arrest him because they lack evidence.

"It's so disgusting, so disappointing when you call, and they say the same thing over and over again," she said.

Ohrman's intention to have Corrado look into the case gives her hope that at least her children's deaths are not forgotten.

"Every time a new case comes forward, the old ones get pushed back," she said. An arrest and conviction "would give me some kind of closure to know he's off the street and he's not going around killing anybody else. He has to be some kind of ruthless person to kill two people like that."

Meanwhile, Corrado is gearing up with investigations training, said Ohrman.

"I've always wanted to do this," Corrado said. "I feel very good about it. After all, we owe the community. They pay our paychecks."

Along with being patrolman, Corrado has been the Swissvale crime prevention officer. He has studied crime scene investigating, interviewing techniques and investigating sex crimes.

Among other changes in Swissvale police department, Ohrman last week established a four-member crime unit that will support evening patrols, carry out surveillance and arrest curfew violators with a mind toward halting street crime.

And when West Junior High School reopened for the year, Ohrman said he went there to warn pupils against causing trouble in the neighborhoods they walk through on the way home.

Residents along Milligan and Patterson avenues, Roslyn Street and Lilmont Drive had complained at council meetings that the pupils are often loud and unruly.