Pittsburgh police officers during a protest in June 2020. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)
by Rich Lord
Six months ago, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration sought to answer summer protests with a task force report on police reform. Also in October, the city started the process of firing Officer Paul Abel.
Both may prove to be important steps for a city in which police-community relations have long been fraught — or they could fade to footnotes in a decades-long debate.
The task force report release was billed as an endorsement of calls for macro-level change at a bureau criticized for arresting Black residents far more readily than whites. The termination was done quietly, but in the wake of the mayor’s public statements that he needed more power to fire police. Together, they reflect Peduto’s approach to policing as he runs for a third term.
Will either action have lasting effects?
As the nation processes a spate of police-involved shootings and the trial of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin in the May death of George Floyd, the Peduto administration is reporting limited progress on the task force’s recommendations. The police union, meanwhile, is challenging Abel’s firing, saying the city failed to meet a contractually required deadline for a disciplinary meeting.
Here’s a look at the administration’s moves since its October actions.
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Pittsburgh policing is changing, but task force recommendations aren’t all speeding ahead
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