Expert talks on potential citizen police review board
The number of Allegheny County’s municipal police departments reaches into the triple digits, and that fragmentation may be a challenge to forming a countywide civilian police review board, a local expert told the County Council public safety committee Thursday.
“There is a limitation because of the autonomy of the local municipalities under Pennsylvania law,” said Beth Pittinger, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board. “That presents a huge communication problem.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporting in December 2018 revealed staggering disparities in resources as well as other issues among the hundreds of departments.
The committee — chaired by Councilwoman Olivia Bennett, DNorthview Heights — met to discuss the police review board measure sponsored by members DeWitt Walton, D-Hill District; Tom Duerr, D-Bethel Park; and Paul Klein, D-Shadyside.
A “potentially feasible way to transcend those issues is to recommend that we have an ombudsman office. An ombudsman serves as a public advocate,” Ms. Pittinger said. The idea would be “to create a central location where somebody could come and file a complaint and trust that from that contact, the local community where the police department is housed would be contacted on their behalf.”
The ombudsman would conduct an administrative investigation and assist the locals on how to set up a review process in that particular municipality, Ms. Pittinger said.
Several members asked Ms. Pittinger to provide more details, including Councilwoman Bethany
Hallam, D-At large, who asked what challenges Ms. Pittinger’s board faces in reviewing complaints about Pittsburgh police.
“I could give you a dozen of them,” Ms. Pittinger said, citing police union contract provisions and the prohibition of information protected by the state’s Criminal History Record Information Act, which she called “a huge problem, but it’s not one that we can fix locally.” She also cited the lack of “political will” by the city administration to provide information.
Mr. Klein and Councilman Robert Palmosina, D-Banksville, expressed concern over the independence of local review boards to which a countywide ombudsman would report. They asked whether a local board in a very small municipality would be compelled to act.
“They would have to do something because the ombudsman would not go away until there’s a resolution,” Ms. Pittinger said.
No vote was taken. Ms. Pittinger presented and answered questions for roughly 45 minutes.
The members used the next 45 minutes discussing an amendment Ms. Hallam introduced to her proposal to require universal COVID19 testing at certain county facilities. The original bill received a negative recommendation from the committee on June 17. The amendment, which members voted down 4-3, went further by requiring COVID-19 testing for all county employees.
Councilwoman Cindy Kirk, D-McCandless, called the amendment “foolhardy” unless the county would restrict employees’ activities outside of work, including travel and attending large gatherings.
Ms. Hallam cited a recent COVID-19 outbreak among county court staff and a positive case of a jail employee in response.
After the amendment failed, the committee voted 4-3 to return the original bill — to mandate testing at the jail and at Kane Regional long-term care facilities, which are already mandated to do so — to the full council with an affirmative recommendation.