Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto (right) speaks at a July 19 press conference, next to Mayor Ed Gainey, at bureau headquarters. (Photo by Eric Jankiewicz/PublicSource)
Mayor Ed Gainey released a 175-page staffing study of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, but Police Chief Larry Scirotto said he disagreed with one of its main suggestions: Reassigning 188 patrol officers to other roles.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
Mayor Ed Gainey unveiled a long-awaited study of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s staffing levels Wednesday, revealing research he has repeatedly said he needs to see before making major changes to the force. The 175-page report recommends drastically reducing the city’s number of patrol officers, but at Wednesday’s press conference, Gainey’s new Police Chief Larry Scirotto said he disagrees with that suggestion.
“This gives a new chief a great road map to start with,” Gainey said. Neither Scirotto or Gainey clarified which of the report’s many suggestions would eventually be implemented. Gainey called the report, from California-based Matrix Consulting, a “blueprint that can be changed.”
The consultants found that the bureau’s patrol officer’s have 71% of their available hours left over after calls for service are handled — far above the 50% level they recommend. They urged the city to shift 188 budgeted positions out of patrol ranks and into a number of more specialized and community-facing roles. The city currently budgets for 463 patrol officers, though a number of those positions are vacant.
The report’s authors and more than 600 officers who responded to their survey last year agreed that the bureau provides exceptionally good response to calls for service. The consultants say that service would not be diminished by slashing patrol ranks.
“PBP has a rare, if not unique, opportunity to achieve a community-centric level of service that other police agencies do not have the resources to accomplish,” the authors wrote.
Despite report, 900 officers still the goal
While Gainey has said he wants to make the police more community-focused since he began campaigning for mayor, his new chief flatly rejected the consultants’ view of how to accomplish that on Wednesday.
The consultants called for a large increase in community resource officers, from 12 to 45, plus a new group of civilian responders for non-emergency calls.
“I’m committed that all 900 men and women in the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police are community police specialists,” Scirotto said, explaining his disagreement with that proposal to shift officers from patrol units and into community resource roles.
The consultants’ survey of officers found that understaffing was their top concern and most felt they didn’t have enough work hours to police proactively outside of responding to calls. Scirotto, conversely, said the bureau’s staffing levels “aren’t in crisis.”