County Council committee hears from expert on police

Law prof says review board needs ‘teeth’ to be successful

Nearly six weeks after Allegheny County Council’s public safety committee heard from the head of Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board, another expert joined members Thursday.

David Harris, professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh and a criminal justice expert, spoke to the committee about different models of civilian review boards that act as a watchdog for government law enforcement.

The legislative body returned from summer recess Tuesday.

“It has to have enough teeth so that it can do what it’s supposed to do,” Mr. Harris said. “If you can do that, I think municipalities will eventually migrate to it, even if they don’t stampede to it.”

In July, Beth Pittinger, executive director of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board, talked to members about the limitations government fragmentation poses to creating a countywide police review board. She recommended a central ombudsman model.

Mr. Harris discussed getting municipalities on board in a variety of ways, including providing more training or technical assistance or funding new initiatives, among others.

“You have to get this enacted; you have to get it on your books,” Mr. Harris said. “... You can’t be behind the eight ball when disaster strikes. You want to be ahead of things and ready for them and improving them. It also has to have enough power to do its job. You can think in terms of subpoena power if you like. You can think in terms of document gathering power, pieces of the legislation that would obligate officers in opting-in departments to cooperate in various ways. Whatever it is, it has to have the power to gather enough information so that it can do what it’s created to do.”

Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, D-At large, said council’s current proposal “lacks teeth” and asked about the possibility of “de-incentivizing” municipalities that don’t agree to an independent review board, including possibly withholding county resources.

“You want to either incentivize or de-incentivize municipalities based off their willingness to participate, and I think it’s very important we be sure we have an adequate strong piece of legislation,” she said.

Councilman Sam DeMarco, R-At large, said the idea of a carrot or stick for municipalities “takes this beyond what had always been discussed previously, which was that the municipalities’ participation [would be] entirely optional at their discretion.

“I am concerned with what I heard today as it was previously presented that should this bill pass, it would only cover the county police,” he said. “Any municipality wishing to participate would have to opt in, yet here today we heard discussion of ‘incentivizing’ municipalities and worse, ‘dis-incentivizing’ those that didn’t.”

On Wednesday, council’s executive committee approved a salary raise for the members’ shared office staff and a 2.5% retroactive raise to elected council members’ $10,900 salaries for 2020.