Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board was given expanded powers to audit the city’s police bureau when voters passed a referendum last year.
This week, city Controller Michael Lamb released an audit of the board itself, the first outside scrutiny of the board since it was created in 1997.
“As the conversations around policing reform continue, Pittsburgh is well served by the Citizen Police Review Board,” Lamb said it a statement.
The audit includes 17 recommendations to improve the board, including changing the way members of the volunteer board are nominated to serve. It also called for an increase in funding that could be tied to a percentage of the city’s police budget, called for transparency in the police union negotiation process so powers of the board aren’t limited in future contracts and found a “clear policy” is needed for the board’s review of police body camera footage.
“It was so comprehensive,” Beth Pittinger, the board’s director, said. “I was impressed with the thoroughness of the audit team.”
The audit helps to “validate the board’s aspirations,” she said.
It also provides the board with a foundation to do more in the future, something “this community’s expecting,” Pittinger said.
“I just hope it’s as valuable to council,” she said. “The burden is on them to enable us to do our job.”
Council hasn’t discussed the audit, which Lamb released Wednesday afternoon.
Seven city residents serve on the board: Emma Lucas-Darby, chair; Thomas C. Waters, vice chair and Elwin Green, Mary Jo Guercio, Patrice Hughes, Karen McLellan, and Sheldon Williams.
The mayor appoints three members and the other four members are nominated by city council. Two members of the board must be law enforcement professionals, but none can be presently employed in law enforcement. All are required to be Pittsburgh residents.
Some of the recommendations, like enlisting the help of respected civic organizations to find nominees to the board, can be acted on now, Pittinger said.
“All they need to do is reach out to city council members or the mayor’s office,” she said.
Council approves nominees for two- or four-year terms.
But the audit suggested the city consider enlisting the help of civic organizations and residents for nominations to the board to ensure resident involvement.
The board’s operating budget of about $640,000 in primarily taken up by its paid staffers, which include Pittinger, an assistant executive director, three investigators and one intake person.
The audit suggested the budget be increased to 2% of the city’s police budget, which would give it about $2 million of the about $106 million the city budgets for police.
An increase in the budget would allow the board to look at more police data, community outreach and other things it can’t do now because of staffing limitations, Pittinger said.
Lamb’s review looked at the history of the board and found that 3,176 cases had been reviewed since it was operational in 1999.
Between 2018 and 2019, 427 complaints were made to the board, the audit found.
More than half of the cases, 58.3%, were found to be unsustainable or unfounded, about 10% of the cases were resolved through mediation or another forum and 2.6% — three cases, resulted in a public hearing.
The remainder of the cases were dismissed due to lack of cooperation or because the board lacked jurisdiction, or they were withdrawn by the person who made the complaint.
Use of force violations represented 3.4% of allegations in 2018 and 4.9% of allegations in 2019, according to the audit.
The board and Lamb’s office will now be working together on an audit of the police bureau. There is no deadline for its completion and a timeline hasn’t been detailed.
The board and the police bureau have made strides toward turning “what once was a hostile relationship” into one that favors collaboration with the community’s interests in mind, Lamb said.
“That relationship need to continue for the good of our city and our residents,” he said.
To view the audit, click here.
Tom Davidson is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tom at 724-226-4715, tdavidson@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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