Good story, bad venue

Police Chief McLay erred in speaking at DNC

Pittsburgh police Chief Cameron McLay’s enlightened views on community relations have been good for Pittsburgh. He has a good story to tell, but it was a mistake for him to tell it Tuesday from the stage of the Democratic National Convention.

Unlike Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., who endorsed Donald Trump and denigrated Black Lives Matter activists during an address to the Republican National Convention last week, Chief McLay gave no indication of who he favors in the presidential race or even whether he intends to vote. He didn’t utter the words “Hillary Clinton,” “Democrat” or “campaign.” In his fourminute speech, he spoke only of the “crisis of trust” between the police and black communities, the challenges that officers face and the “important work” of improving the bureau’s relations with minority residents.

Still, it was inappropriate for him to appear in uniform at a partisan political function and to be introduced there as a representative of the city. The DNC is a forum for politicians, not the public servants who report to them.

The speech exacerbated the city’s already-rocky relationship with the police union, which claims that Chief McLay violated a section of the City Code prohibiting police from campaigning “for a candidate for any office or for a ballot issue while on duty, while wearing a uniform or while on city property. Nor may he/she identify himself/ herself as an employee of the Department of Police.” The union wants Chief McLay disciplined, if not fired, warning that failure to do so will set a precedent it may raise any time the city goes after an officer for inappropriate political activity. Kevin Acklin, the mayor’s chief of staff, said Chief McLay did nothing wrong because he talked about Pittsburgh’s efforts on police-community relations without mentioning politics.

But such hair-splitting is silly — and it shouldn’t be necessary. If anyone spoke to Democratic delegates about city policy, it should have been the city’s chief policymaker, Mayor Bill Peduto, who is, to boot, a Democrat and in Philadelphia for the convention. Chief McLay should have stayed home so he could concentrate on the important work at hand.