Target 11 Investigates: Pittsburgh police K9 movements to minority communities drawing criticism

PITTSBURGH — A controversial move by the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police is drawing criticism from local activists.

The bureau transferred the majority of K9 units to police stations that cover neighborhoods with a higher minority population.

Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle looked into the fallout from this controversial decision.

Pittsburgh’s Public Safety department said it was designed to increase response for K9 units, but critics contend it’s just not a good look for the bureau.

When a man with an AK-47 randomly opened fire on drivers along busy McKnight Road and fired shots at a mailman in Perry North, Pittsburgh Police K9 units were immediately dispatched to search for the suspect and the weapon, which they found in a wooded area near woods run.

Pittsburgh Police have 15 dogs, and they’re used for everything from locating drugs and explosives to tracking down guns and suspects.

The majority of those K9′s had been working at two police stations in the city, one in the West End and the other in Squirrel Hill.

But at the beginning of this year, six were sent to the police station on the North Side and nine were relocated to the police station in Highland Park in the east end. The officers at that station cover neighborhoods with a higher percentage of African Americans, such as Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington and Larimer.

Immediately there were questions.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess lives in Homewood.

“Let’s put these draconian police patrols, and stopping and dogs and let’s put them in Black communities and crime will go down. It actually will not,” said Burgess.

And Burgess isn’t alone. The executive director of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board, Beth Pittinger, is also questioning the look of relocating the majority of K9′S to a station that covers neighborhoods with a higher minority population.

“The optics are horrible. it’s like the reincarnation of Bull Connor, what are we doing,” said Pittinger.

Beth Pittinger is referring to the former Public Safety Commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama, Bull Connor.

A segregationist and white supremacist, he routinely deployed dogs on African Americans during civil rights demonstrations in the 1950′s and 60′s.

“I just don’t think that’s appropriate, the optics, the messaging, the symbolism,” said Pittinger.

And the chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project, Tim Stevens, who lives in the East End where nine of the K9s are now located wants some answers.

“There’s a lot of history there with dogs and police and none of it is positive, and I think it’s something that the department has to look at very carefully and handle that in a judicious fashion and also maybe further explanation as to why the dogs were placed where they were,” said Stevens.

A public safety spokesperson said it was a strategic decision to distribute resources as efficiently as possible based on need and proximity.

And she said it also now puts the majority of K9 units closer to the training academy on Washington Blvd.

The zone five police station where the dogs are now based is also on Washington Blvd., adjacent to the training academy.

“My first question was will that officer now be patrolling in zone five and not in my community,” said Pittsburgh City Councilman Anthony Coghill, who while expressing concern about the optics also said he’s worried about public safety.

Given the well-publicized manpower shortages police are experiencing, Coghill is concerned about losing officers that would normally patrol his communities.

And since the dogs have been removed from the station that covers some of his neighborhoods, he fears it will now take the K9 units longer to respond to an emergency.

“It doesn’t sit well with me, and it doesn’t sit well with my district. Anything can happen in any district and we have to be ready to respond,” said Coghill.

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