No-confidence vote goes against McLay

Police chief, union have been at odds

Pittsburgh police union members voted overwhelmingly Wednesday that they have no confidence in Chief Cameron McLay.

The vote is symbolic, and police union members say they hope it will send a strong message to the chief and persuade him to reconsider some of his policies.

“To me, it’s a mandate,” said Officer Robert Swartzwelder, president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “It speaks volumes that the officers have no confidence in the direction the chief’s taking [the bureau] in.”

Chief McLay and the police union have clashed over various issues during his two years with the bureau, including forced overtime, handling of off-duty work, what Officer Swartzwelder described as “violations of different provisions of the contract” and, more recently, the chief’s appearance and speech at the Democratic National Convention. Active Pittsburgh police union members were able to cast ballots from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday. Police officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants who were in good standing with the union were eligible to vote.

Officer Swartzwelder said 459 officers — a little more than 60 percent of those who were eligible — voted on the no-confidence issue. Of those, 421 said they did not have confidence in Chief McLay. Sixteen officers indicated they did have confidence in the chief, and 22 abstained.

Chief McLay said Wednesday night that he had not seen the results of the vote.

“I’m going to look at it and try to figure out what it means before I’m going to react to it,” he said.

Mayor Bill Peduto said earlier this week — following results of an online survey of officers — that he continued to have confidence in the chief.