Activists looking to remake police oversight in Pittsburgh

Activists pushing for an overhaul of police oversight in Pittsburgh drew at least several dozen people to a virtual gathering Saturday.

The Stop the Station coalition plans to seek a new, resident-elected body that would set the city’s police budget, a function the mayor and City Council handle. The new panel’s powers would extend to investigating and disciplining police officers, among other functions, according to a tentative blueprint supporters hammered out Saturday.

They plan to hone their public campaign and strategy over the coming weeks, they said, mulling

ideas for council legislation, a ballot referendum and other mechanisms that could execute the concept.

“We’re dealing with the system; we’re not dealing just with individuals,” said Randall Taylor, an activist and former Pittsburgh school boardmember.

Mayor Bill Peduto and police union leadership have outsized influence over policing, which should be “subject to the will of the people,” Mr. Taylor argued in the roughly three-hour gathering Stop the Station hosted Saturday.

At one point, it seemed more than 100 people were in attendance. Among them, Jerry Dickinson, a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, said the endeavor could set a precedent for other cities to follow. Several Pitt law students are assisting, he said.

Under an approach sketched out Saturday, the new governance body would replace — and have more expansive influence than — the current Citizen Police Review Board. Pittsburghers voted in November to strengthen the role and powers of that board, which investigates citizen complaints about police conduct.

Mr. Peduto has “repeatedly said he supports reimagining policing,” Peduto spokesman Timothy McNulty said in a statement Saturdayafternoon.

Mr. Peduto “engaged the independent and experienced panel of stakeholders in the Community Task Force on Police Reform to help the city do so,” Mr. McNulty said, referring to a 15-member panel convened by the mayor in June. “Many of their recommendations, from working on criminal justice diversion programs to giving police recruits cuttingedge training on working with diverse communities, are already being implemented.”

The Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1 could not be reached immediately on Saturday.

Stop the Station, which opposes plans to relocate the Zone 5 police station from Highland Park to East Liberty, has called for the city to defund its police by at least 50% and put the money into affordable housing and social services. Its next steps include another conference with supporters and partners in about a month, organizer Jalina McClarin said.