Target 11 uncovers major restructuring of Pittsburgh police bureau, union takes issue with proposal

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto plans to allocate funds to add five Colonels to the ranks of the Pittsburgh Police Bureau. It’s a brand-new position for the department.

The Mayor’s Chief of Staff, Dan Gilman, told Target 11 that the current command staff is relatively small compared to other similar cities.

Gilman said the new positions will improve communication and streamline operations.

The colonels will oversee the commanders at the six zone stations and work with the chief of police.

“This provides them more support. They are incredibly overwhelmed running a bureau this large,” said Gilman.

The five new colonels who have not been appointed yet will earn more than $120,000 per year. Combined, that’s more than $600,000 annually.

The new positions drew harsh criticism from the Police Officers’ Union, which claimed there are more pressing needs.

“You’re expanding command ranks while operation ranks continue to dwindle, for what purposes and at what costs? He (the mayor) feels he needs to supervise his command staff rather than his field units,” said Union President Bob Swartzwelder.

“We have more officers on the street today than we did when Mayor Peduto took office. We’ve expanded the number of sergeants. We’ve expanded the number of management.  We expanded the number of people within the police union. I don’t agree with the police union at all.”

While the mayor has increased the number of officers over the years, the union said so far this year, 78 officers have either resigned or retired and 257 of the 900 are eligible for retirement.

Gilman said he has not discussed the new positions with incoming Mayor-elect Ed Gainey. Gilman defended the move in the waning days of the Peduto administration and said Mayor Peduto is attempting to put the Mayor-elect in a position to succeed.

“We’re doing everything in terms of setting up the next administration for success. As you’ve seen and we’ve been very clear, we were elected to a four-year term, and the mayor is going to sprint to the finish line, “said Gilman.

Mayor-elect Gainey has said he plans to make changes to the police department.

Target 11 reached out to Gainey to get his reaction to this last-minute move by the Peduto administration to hire more command staff, but we have not heard back from him.

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