Proposed bill would require Pittsburgh police to be more transparent

PITTSBURGH — Each and every day, Pittsburgh city police officers show up to work, but what happens on the job isn’t always available to the public.

“If someone is stopped by police, or experiences use of force or physical restraints, or given a citation warning or an arrest, that would have to be tracked and put out to the public,” said council member Erika Strassburger.

Such a database is something Strassburger and council member Corey O’Connor are working to create. The legislation is making its way through City Council right now and would break up the data by gender and race.

“We know racial profiling exists. We know Black men between 18-25 are more likely to have excessive force used against them, arrested, and end up in jail. Until we get at the reasons behind that, it’s hard for us to know exactly why that is occurring,” Strassburger said.

That’s the question city council wants answered. Strassburger told Channel 11 this type of data is beneficial, using last week’s stun gun incident in Bloomfield as an example.

“What kind of behaviors, what kind of situations and what kind of incidents warrant a certain type of force, is really what we are getting out. It’s not just about the data, it’s not just about transparency. What we are getting at (is) what warrants a Taser use, if anything?” Strassburger said.

She went on to say there is no question that the council fully supports the bill. It’s just now working out the logistics to get that data and make it easy to find and easy to read for the public.

“That’s when we, as council members, can start to work with other parts of government to pass additional bills and laws to make those changes that are necessary,” Strassburger said.

We reached out to the Department of Public Safety to find out its stance on the legislation.

A spokesperson told Channel 11 that the department fully supports the bill, which is in line with recommendations by the Mayor’s Community Task Force on Police Reform.

“The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police is committed to providing as much information and as transparency as possible about the work they do, which is why Public Safety is investing in new technology that would allow police to create databases to provide the information the public has been asking for,” said Cara Cruz, the spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety.

The bill will go before the council for a final vote on Tuesday.

Southern Beltway opens Friday to connect Washington County, Pittsburgh International Airport