Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto Pushes Police Reform Agenda

PITTSBURGH, PA — Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto outlined a police reform agenda Thursday, a day after calling for separate investigations into whether city police behaved appropriately when they clashed with protesters at an East Liberty demonstration Monday.

Peduto has called for the Office of Municipal Investigations and the Citizen Police Review Board to probe police conduct at the end of what had been a peaceful protest. Twenty arrests were made and nine officers were injured in the incident.

Peduto said Thursday that the city already has or will implement policies to ensure that Pittsburgh:

• Requires officers to de-escalate situations, when possible, before using force.
• Has a force continuum or matrix included in their use of force policy, defining the types of force/weapons that can be used to respond to specific types of resistance.
• Explicitly prohibits chokeholds and strangleholds (including carotid restraints) or limit these tactics to situations where deadly force is authorized.
• Requires officers to give a verbal warning, when possible, before using deadly force.
• Prohibits officers from shooting at people in moving vehicles unless the person poses a deadly threat by means other than the vehicle (for example, shooting at people from the vehicle).
• Requires officers to exhaust all other reasonable alternatives before resorting to using deadly force.
• Requires officers to intervene to stop another officer from using excessive force.
• Requires officers to report all uses of force including threatening another civilian with a firearm.

“These are critical steps we must take and we must take now," Peduto said at a new conference.

"We must work to build trust between police and all they serve. We must undo the systems that have caused pain, suffering, and loss of life in communities of color. This is a first step, we must strive everyday to do better.”

The mayor renewed his previous endorsement of use-of-force legislation introduced by state Reps. Summer Lee and Ed Gainey barring police from using deadly force during arrests, and using it only to protect against imminent threats of harm.

The mayor also fully endorsed the State Legislature Police Reform Working Group’s slate of recommendations. The Working Group has issued a list of other possible reforms, including outlawing the use of choke-holds, establishing an independent review process of any police encounter that results in serious injury or death, and naming an inspector general to review police policies and behaviors to preemptively prevent police misconduct.

Additionally, Peduto is calling on Pittsburgh Police and all police statewide to be required to go through annual implicit bias and de-escalation training. City police already receive this training but will receive more.