Former chief expected to meet with FBI about police spending

PITTSBURGH — City officials in Pittsburgh said they’re investigating several police-related bank accounts, including who controlled them and how the money was spent.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the probe involves several accounts at the Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union. The FBI seized documents from the institution last week.

Ravensthal said Tuesday that he doesn't know why money from one account paid to rent condos downtown for officials whose homes were threatened by Group of 20 summit protesters in 2009.

City Controller Michael Lamb has already announced an audit of the police department's Special Events office. He wants to see how it handles payments received for off-duty officers hired to work private security details.

Lamb said the credit union is not an authorized depository for city money.

Former Police Chief Bob McNeilly told Channel 11’s Alan Jennings Wednesday that he’s been contacted by the FBI, and that he has a lot to share.

“The great thing is that the FBI is investigating this and they’ll be able to sort it all out. I have full confidence that they’ll find out who's guilty and who’s innocent,” McNeilly said. “If money was set up in another account to divert city money that’s not only unethical, but it’s illegal.”

McNeilly wasn’t happy after he learned that Ravenstahl said a credit union cash account was first opened in 2004 when he was chief.

“He tried to divert some of the attention away from himself and tried to put it on somebody who has an unblemished career. I think that was atrocious,” McNeilly said.

McNeilly also rallied against Chief Nate Harper for allowing an inside clique known as "the Detail Mafia" who cheated other officers out of secondary employment.

“It’s shocking how anybody in police work could associate themselves with an organization that was surrounded in secrecy and was involved in illegal activities. I think it’s outrageous,” McNeilly said.

McNeilly told Jennings he thinks Ravenstahl should put Harper on paid leave, while Harper has said throughout everything that he’s done nothing wrong.

WPXI