Council hearing kicks off meetings on police reform

Seven speakers showed up to a half-hour virtual public hearing Wednesday to express support for the police reform in Pittsburgh but skepticism on whether the several bills at hand go far enough.

The City Council hearing, presided over by Councilman Ricky Burgess, focused on five bills that respectively aim to fund a violence-prevention initiative, require officers to intervene if another is using inappropriate force, ban the purchasing of military equipment, ban chokeholds and move money from police salaries to other funding areas.

“Something needs to change. The proposals today do not go nearly far enough, but they are a good first step,” said a speaker who identified himself as a software engineer and “survivor of police brutality” from Beechview. Council does not display the names of speakers.

Mr. Burgess and Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle are co-sponsors of the bills, which were introduced in the weeks following mass protests across the U.S. and locally in response to the police killing of George Floyd and other incidents of police brutality against Black people.

Local activists in June delivered a dozen demands to both Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald that included appeals to move funding from the police budget to invest in Black communities, to “demilitarize the police” and to “end the criminalization of Black people,” among other demands.

Several hearing speakers called council’s proposed measures “long overdue,” while others asked for more transparency on the two pieces of legislation tied to funding.

One bill calls for a budgetary obligation to the STOP the Violence fund, which is connected to an initiative championed by Mr. Burgess in 2018 and 2019 in part to fund violence-prevention programs. The initiative passed as part of a package of gun-reform bills in April 2019 in response to the October 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue.

The second funding-related bill discussed at the hearing is a measure that aims to move $250,000 from the police recruit allowance to the STOP the Violence fund.

Carmen Brown, a regular speaker at council and critic of Mr. Burgess, said she has “a lot of reservations about” the fund. “These funds should be directed or looked at by the people in the community,” she said. Ms. Brown filed a lawsuit against Mr. Burgess in late 2019 seeking his ouster.

The city’s 2020 operating budget makes one reference to the STOP the Violence initiative in a line item for a $63,887 salaried position for a coordinator. The Bureau of Police accounted for $500,000 in state grants for gun violence reduction.

The bureau’s budget this year is $114.8 million.

City Council will spend the next several days in fact-finding meetings (called post-agenda meetings) and public hearings focused on police reform. For the 6 p.m. public hearings, speakers can register by phone at 412-255-2138 by 4:30 p.m. the day of the hearing, or submit comments by email at cityclerksoffice@pittsburghpa.gov by 5 p.m. the day of the hearing. For the noon Saturday public hearing, speakers must register or submit comments by 6 p.m. Friday. There are no public speakers for the post-agenda meetings. Hearings and meetings are held via the Zoom videoconferencing platform and can be viewed live on the city’s YouTube channel.

The schedule is as follows:

• 10 a.m. Thursday, July 16 — Post-Agenda

• Noon Saturday, July 18 — Public Hearing

• 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 21 — Public Hearing

• 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 22 — Public Hearing

• 10 a.m. Monday, July 27 — Post-Agenda