Could Pittsburgh become “the next Ferguson?” Acting Pittsburgh police Chief Cameron McLay said he thinks it could. And he is working as hard as he can to make sure it doesn’t.
“I’ve asked command staff who they know in the community, who are the leaders who can help calm things if an incident like that happens in their zone. We need those relationships, that trust, so we can hit pause long enough for emotions to shut down and let the investigative process take its course,” he said. “And if the (grand jury announcement on Ferguson) comes when we think it might, it will coincide with Light Up Night here. With thousands of people already on the streets, it could be bad. So we are prepared for the worst but we’re trying to be proactive on this.”
That was just one of the brutally honest responses McLay gave to an audience of more than 100 people who met to ask him questions during a Community Conversation at Pentecostal Temple Church in East Liberty Nov. 17. Following introductions by sponsors Black Political Empowerment Project Chair Tim Stevens and Urban League of Pittsburgh President and CEO Esther Bush, KDKA-TV news reporter Lynn Hayes-Freeland wasted no time reading questions submitted by the audience.
McLay did not defer any answers to the other public safety personnel who joined him for the meeting, and only failed to answer questions on one subject—the Leon Ford case. Would he urge the district attorney to drop the lesser charges? Would he fire the officers involved in Ford’s shooting?
“I hope you can see the pained expression on my face because I’m handcuffed. Not only can’t I talk about still pending legal action, but there is union contract language that limits what I can say,” he said. “But I can’t wait for this to be over because I’d love to sit down and talk with Leon about what happened and maybe have him sit down with the officers involved.”
That led to another question: how do you stop young Black men who resist police authority because they are fearful of becoming the next Leon Ford? McLay said that is part of the all too frequent “dance” of escalation that can occur during a police stop.
On my end, a lot of times those situations begin with discourtesy on the part of an officer. And that can, and will be addressed with training,” he said.
When asked how he could change hiring to improve diversity and weed out potential rogue cops, McLay said the hiring process was revamped before his arrival to be “blind” to applicants race and gender. So the only leverage he has, he said, is in recruiting.
There were several questions asked about improving police/community relations, especially with the Black community, which elicited a surprising admission.
“When I was first coming here, I didn’t have a plan for repairing the broken relationship with the Black community,” he said. “Now I’m working to have officers follow my lead, come to community meetings and events, and meet people. My command staff do, I want the patrol officers to do that. But for that they need discretionary time when they don’t have to field dispatch calls.”
For them to have that, McLay needs more officers on the street. He has already pulled some detectives for patrol duty, but its not enough. And that also reduces the ability to close difficult or cold investigations leading to the perception that murders like that of 16-year-old Tiara Whitehead don’t matter as much as the Wolfe sisters.
More brutal honesty:
Will more officers on the street stop the violence? “Probably not.”
What can be done to stop the flow of high-powered weapons into the community? “Not much. There are so many places to buy guns, there’s not a lot we can do.”
What do you need to stop the violence? “Help. Black on Black violence is a public health issue across the country. There’s a lot we can’t deal with poverty, education. But we can use Focused deterrents. We tried before, it didn’t work. We called it PIRC. We need to know who are the ones driving the crime, and use the data to remove the thing causing the problem—like laser surgery. But if no one is talking to me who the players are, I have to use the tools I have, and that can have harmful effect.”
Lastly, What are you going to do about Zone 5 (where the bulk of the excessive force incidents—from beatings to shootings—come from)?
“It’s easy to indict everyone in that station. But remember, we had several officers killed out of that station and another paralyzed, and so there’s a lot of fear. On both sides,” he said. “So, what does it feel like to live in Zone 5, in Homewood? What does it feel like to patrol here? We have to have those conversations, and when we do really cool things will happen. The officers don’t like what we have. You don’t like what we have. Lets get together and change that.”
Other sponsors for the Community Conversation were the Alliance for Police Accountability, Operation Better Block, Black Women For Positive Change, Black and White Reunion, and the Western PA Black Political Assembly.
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
