• Editorial -- A plethora of police: Time for reforms after the death of Antwon Rose,

Time for reforms after the death of Antwon Rose

Among the many questions raised by the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II by an East Pittsburgh police officer are these: Why does a borough of about 1,800 people, living in an area smaller than 1 square mile, have its own police department? Why do so many other small boroughs and townships have their own police forces, inevitably breeding inconsistency in policies, procedures, professionalism, manpower, training and other resources across the county?

East Pittsburgh has nine officers, including Chief Lori Fruncek, who is Mayor Louis Payne’s daughter, and Michael Rosfeld, who was charged last week with criminal homicide for shooting Antwon three times as he fled a traffic stop. District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Officer Rosfeld should not have fired at the unarmed youth because he posed no threat as he ran away.

Protesters have taken to the streets to demand justice for Antwon and better treatment of black residents by police. This is also a time to reflect on the nature of policing locally and consider steps that could lead to significant improvements, including improved relations between officers and minority communities.

First, while the spirit of parochialism remains firmly entrenched here, municipalities should consider merging their police departments into regional forces that could leverage economies of scale.

Pooling resources could make for more efficient patrolling and free up time and money for training. A larger force potentially would be more attractive to prospective hires and enable a department to tap into a deeper talent pool. East Pittsburgh never should have hired Officer Rosfeld, who left the University of Pittsburgh police force after officials discovered that his sworn affidavit didn’t match evidence collected from the scene of an Oakland bar dispute.

Second, police departments should leverage the resources of Pittsburgh’s university community and the region’s public schools. Just as Pittsburgh’s paramedics have worked with local hospitals to improve the flow of care, so police departments, or better yet a committee representing a number of them, should approach Pitt’s School of Social Work or the Duquense University Law School’s Civil Rights Clinic to develop strategies for better policing. Police departments also should work with public schools to develop pipelines for recruitment of minority officers.

Third, Mr. Zappala should champion consolidation and put out more guidelines for how departments, especially small ones, should operate. Last year, he issued guidelines for police chases and the filing of felony charges. He directed that victims’ advocates be brought in to assist families on all missing person cases.

Fourth, the Legislature should set uniform standards for municipalities’ vetting of prospective hires. It should mandate the use of polygraph tests to weed out those unfit for the job, and prohibit municipalities from hiring officers with blemished records. Past behavior, after all, is the best predictor of future behavior.

Lawmakers should require additional training for municipal police officers, who already have to pass a 919-hour certification program and then attend at least 12 hours of additional training on various topics each year. They should mandate regular anti-bias and Mental Health First Aid training.

The Legislature also should authorize the state auditor general to conduct performance audits of police departments. These checkups would ensure that departments meet all hiring, training and operating standards while providing an outsider’s suggestions for improvement. The auditor general may review police pension funds but not the departments themselves. That’s absurd.

Finally, departments of all sizes should get closer to the people they serve. Municipalities should encourage their officers to live within their borders. Getting out of the car and walking a beat is important. Community groups should invite officers to their meetings and create a supportive network so that residents understand that they have a role to play in police-community relations, too.

In the spring, two city police officers began lifting weights with students at City Charter High School, Downtown, allowing the cops and the kids to get to know each other on neutral ground. It’s a reminder that even small things have the potential to make a big difference.