Forum focuses on police-community relations
Changes to state laws weighed after shooting
State lawmakers, police chiefs and experts sounded off Tuesday on police-community relations and how state laws ought to change in the wake of the fatal East Pittsburgh police shooting of an unarmed teenager.
Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert and Allegheny County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough were among nine panelists who addressed about 20 Democratic lawmakers during the joint Senate and House Democratic policy committee meeting at the Hosanna House in Wilkinsburg.
Much of the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, focused on the need for more robust training, education and diversity among police departments.
But the wide-ranging discussion also touched on whether Allegheny County’s more than 100 police departments should be consolidated, whether the state attorney general should be required to investigate all officer-involved shootings, and how to prevent officers fired for misconduct from getting hired at other law enforcement agencies.
Rep. Ed Gainey, D-Lincoln-Lemington, who requested the hearing along with Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, said he hoped to take ideas generated in the meeting and turn them into legislation that could prevent future police shootings.
“At the end of the day, I don’t believe anyone should get shot in the back three times,” Mr. Gainey said, referring to the killing of Antwon Rose II, 17, who was shot three times, once in the back, while running from a police officer in East Pittsburgh on June 19.
East Pittsburgh Officer Michael Rosfeld has been charged with homicide. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. criticized East Pittsburgh police after Antwon’s death for failing to have policies in place to guide officers in critical incidents. The borough has since denied a Right-toKnow request filed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for a police policy manual, saying the records do not exist.
About 100 people attended the public meeting. Only panelists and lawmakers were allowed to address the room, but the crowd made its opinion clear through applause and shouts. Many held cell phones aloft as they live-streamed the hearing on social media.
Wilkinsburg police Chief Ophelia Coleman received some of the
loudest crowd support as she emphasized the importance of identifying and firing misbehaving officers.
“When you have an officer who everyone is talking about, you need to look at that officer and get rid of him instead of keeping him and protecting him and calling it the thin blue line, because that’s a joke,” she said.
She went on to suggest that legislators could create a new board or agency tasked with tracking officer misconduct and reviewing each department’s training — an agency that would go beyond the Municipal Police Officers’ Education & Training Commission’s current scope.
Superintendent McDonough who spoke after Chief Coleman, said Antwon’s death has “shined a spotlight on the disparities” in training, salaries and policies among Allegheny County’s police departments and said some departments need more funding.
“Many of these disparities, although not all, can be traced to the varying ability of the 130 municipalities in the county to adequately fund their respective departments,” he said.
Some lawmakers questioned Superintendent McDonough about whether the county’s many departments could be consolidated, and he pointed to cost as a possible barrier.
“The county police are not designed currently to be a 24/7 response,” he said, although he added that the county does contract with Wilmerding to provide policing services. “That model is out there.”
The county police also patrol county parks and the airport and investigate crimes at the jail. Their detective units include homicide, narcotics and general investigations.
Tim Stevens, president and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, supported the merging of police departments in a letter to local public safety officials Tuesday, saying the move would improve training and boost salaries.
Chief Schubert told lawmakers that he would welcome any attempt to ensure equal training is available to all police officers across municipalities.
He also recognized the need for “accountability” among law enforcement.
“Officers put their lives on the line without hesitation on a daily basis to help complete strangers,” he said. “I think that speaks volumes to who they are. With that said, I also believe in accountability at all levels.”
The hearing continued well beyond its scheduled 2:45 p.m. end as a variety of panelists, including Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board President Elizabeth Pittinger and forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, answered question after question from lawmakers.
“The time is long past for this kind of discussion here today,” Dr. Wecht said to cheers.