City police train community, officers on implicit bias

The young black man who walked into the community event at the coffee shop in Homewood didn’t fit in with the older crowd, and for a moment, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Jason Lando felt uneasy.

The young man was in sweats, he wasn’t drinking coffee, wasn’t talking with others at the event. Cmdr. Lando exchanged a glance with another officer. Something felt not quite right.

But then the commander spoke with the young man and discovered he hadn’t come to the coffee shop to cause trouble — just to say hello.

And Cmdr. Lando realized he had initially reacted with implicit bias — an unconscious, automatic association between a group and a trait.

“You can’t get rid of implicit bias,” he said Wednesday.“It’s in you. The important thing is to understand that you have that bias, recognize it and be careful not to act on it.”

He spoke during a daylong training session in which police officers taught about 60 community members about implicit bias and discussed its impact on policing.

Wednesday’s training was a slightly shortened version of implicit bias training that all Pittsburgh police officers are now required to go through as part of the city’s participation in the

Permits for neighborhood block parties and special events can now be obtained online and paid for with a credit card, Mayor Peduto and City Councilman Dan Gilman announced Wednesday.

Burglar and fire alarm permits also can be purchased and filed online at the Finance Department website, according to a press release from Mr. Peduto’s office. Additionally, the city is accepting credit card payments for all permits issued by the Departments of Public Works and Permits Licenses and Inspections, although those permits will still be issued in Downtown.

Previously, checks and money orders were the only accepted forms of payment for city permits.

“Before, you would have to go Downtown on a weekday with a check or money order, find a parking spot, pay for parking, wait in line,” Councilman Dan Gilman said. “Now, you can do it online in five minutes with a credit card. That’s a real game changer.”

Mr. Gilman said he has been working to modernize the city’s permitting process since he took office four years ago. Many constituents complained to him about how complicated the process was, he said. In the future, he hopes to see other kinds of permits — including development, dumpster and street obstruction permits — made available online.

In the next few months, the city also will roll out a new website to provide Pittsburghers with better access to legislation and information, Mr. Gilman added.

It’s all part of a larger effort to make city government more accessible and transparent.

“There’s clearly a lot of economic growth in the region — from artificial intelligence to autonomous vehicles — and yet from an operational standpoint, city government was stuck in the mid-1980s,” Mr. Gilman said. “It’s important that the city play catch-up and start to work like a 21st-century city.”