PITTSBURGH — After months of leadership changes, Pittsburgh officially has a new police chief.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle spoke with Jason Lando just minutes after his confirmation on Wednesday, asking where he stands on some of the changes implemented by former Chief Larry Scirotto.
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Lando praised one of his moves but says he will likely reverse another one.
Scirotto closed police stations to the public overnight because of staffing issues.
Lando believes they should be open and suggested civilians could staff them.
“That way, if there’s an emergency, someone comes to a station in the middle of the night, knocking on the door, someone’s there to let them in, and there’s a safe space for them until an officer can respond,” Lando told Earle.
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Despite concerns about staffing certain shifts, Lando says officers will continue working four 10-hour days, a move made by Scirotto.
But Lando praised Scirotto’s implementation of the telephone reporting unit to handle non-emergency calls, even though it’s drawn criticism from residents who want an officer to respond in person.
“Our telephone reporting unit has really stepped up, and they’re taking a significant number of calls, which frees up our officers to be in service for higher priority calls but also to have a little bit of downtime between calls so they’re not constantly running from call to call,” Lando said.
While his top priority is reducing violent and quality-of-life crimes, Lando also plans to focus on officer recruitment and retention.
During the past two years, more than 160 officers have retired or resigned, and the bureau is at its lowest staffing level in years.
“We want to look internally and see what we can do to make the Pittsburgh police a place where people want to come and stay for their entire career,” Lando said.
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Council members said they were satisfied that Lando admitted he made a mistake by sending anonymous, disparaging text messages to a former officer while serving as chief in Frederick, Md.
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Lando told Earle he wanted to get out in front of that.
He’s relieved it’s now over, and he can now concentrate on improving the police bureau.
You can watch Earle’s full interview with Lando below:
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