Pittsburgh chief of police Schubert sits down with Channel 11 over police reform report

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh’s Chief of Police Scott Schubert said he is still reviewing the police reform report released earlier in the week by a special task force. He did say that he was concerned the report did not mention the positive things his department has done.

“I think there would have been an opportunity to put down all of the good things that Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has done, and say ‘Here’s ways we can improve upon it.’ It just seems like it went straight to all these different reforms without any context to anything else,” he said.

The recommendations include reallocating police funds to support mental health and community outreach programs, restricting the use of rubber bullets and tear gas and reducing the over-policing of minority communities.

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“We’re always looking to see how we can better ourselves. We’re always looking at departments across the country for best practices and unfortunately it’s incidents that occur that cause change in policing across the country and we’re not unique to this reform package,” Schubert said. “You know, nobody wants a bad cop. We don’t want a bad cop. Nobody wants that. I don’t want to take away from the good work our officers do each and every day because they’re good people who are out there trying to help make a difference. They put their lives on the line every day.”

The chief said he plans to talk with the mayor’s office and respond to every recommendation in the report. Schubert also said he plans to meet with people in the community to address any concerns.

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