JASON LANDO IS MAYOR-ELECT COREY O’CONNOR’S PICK FOR THE NEXT PITTSBURGH POLICE CHIEF. (PHOTO BY STEPHANIE STRASBURG/PITTSBURGH’S PUBLIC SOURCE)
On June 3, 2017, the New Pittsburgh Courier attended and filmed an event that had Black children playing chess with Pittsburgh Police officers. The Black children got a chance to play other games with the officers, and the parents were busy getting community information from the various organizations in attendance.
It was the “Zone 5 Community Day Open House,” a free outdoor event in front of the Pittsburgh Police Zone 5 station, on Washington Boulevard in East Liberty. At the time, the Courier interviewed on camera the Zone 5 police commander, Jason Lando, who said they held the open house because, “we realize how important it is for the police to connect with the community.”
He also said, “our officers are DJing, grilling, it’s just a really nice way to bring everybody together and hopefully when we go out in the street now, and we encounter some of these people, there’s less stress, it makes it easier for the officers, there’s more trust on the part of the public, and it’s really a win-win for everybody.”
Little did anyone know that Lando, who, at that time, had been Zone 5 Commander since 2014, would eventually become Pittsburgh’s Chief of Police.
Jason Lando, left, speaks at a press conference with Corey O’Connor, right, Pittsburgh mayor-elect on Nov. 13, at the mayor-elect’s transition office in Downtown. Lando is O’Connor’s nominee for chief of the Bureau of Police. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
When you’re the Zone 5 Commander in Pittsburgh, you get to know Pittsburgh’s Black community real fast. Zone 5 includes East Liberty, Garfield, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington, Larimer, Homewood, East Hills, Highland Park and Bloomfield. Lando, who is currently the Chief of Police in Frederick, Maryland, on Nov. 13 was nominated to become Pittsburgh’s police chief by incoming mayor Corey O’Connor.
“You’ll see that Chief Lando is somebody that we wanted, somebody that we need right now in the City of Pittsburgh, somebody that cares about the community,” O’Connor said at a Nov. 13 press conference.
“For too long we have not had a chief of police that was actually dedicated to Pittsburgh,” O’Connor continued.
Lando is a Pittsburgher, raised in Squirrel Hill, and began with the Pittsburgh Police in 2006. Following his time as Zone 5 Commander, he ran the department’s Narcotics and Vice unit.
In Pittsburgh’s African American community, the individual leading the police force takes center stage. Pittsburgh’s Black community remembers the shooting of Leon Ford in 2012, which left him paralyzed at the hands of Pittsburgh Police officers. They remember the beating of Jordan Miles in January 2010 at the hands of Pittsburgh Police. Any number of African Americans in Pittsburgh can detail a time or two when they had negative interactions with Pittsburgh Police.
Right now, it’s unclear if Lando will be brought before some of the more prominent African American leaders in the city to get a feel for how he’ll lead the force. Lando must be approved by Pittsburgh City Council in order to take the top cop job. O’Connor will take the office of mayor on Jan. 5, 2026, and Lando needs five of the City Council’s nine votes to make him the chief.
In an interview with KDKA Radio’s Rob Pratte on Nov. 16, Lando said that during his time as Zone 5 Commander, the “narrative” between the community and police was changed. “I was so proud of the work they did,” Lando told Pratte. “We can’t be successful as a profession if we don’t have the support of the community. We have a million rules, a million regulations; I would tell my officers, if you forget all of them, just remember one thing; if you go out there every single day and you treat the members of our community the way you would want a member of your family treated in that situation, then you’re gonna be fine. The officers did that.”
Lando told Pratte that being nominated for Pittsburgh’s Chief of Police hasn’t even sunk in yet. He said from a very young age, “all I wanted to do is be a Pittsburgh Police officer.”
Lando also said he will be living in the South Side Flats, and will work to rid of the violent crime in the South Side Entertainment District that has given that East Carson Street area a not-so-good reputation of late. He also wants to keep Downtown Pittsburgh as crime-free as possible.
“I’ve already started having those conversations with the officers and the supervisors, just in the last few days about what is going on now and what are the plans for the future,” Lando told Pratte. “Like any city, your Downtown is vital and cities rise or fall on the vibrancy of their Downtown.”