Complaints against Pittsburgh police officers to the city’s independent review board could hit an all-time low this year, according to the board’s chief executive.
Elizabeth Pittinger, who has led the Citizens Police Review Board for 23 of the board’s 25 years of existence, said the 220 complaints made against officers this year represents another year of decline as well as the lowest number in the board’s existence.
“We’ve seen as many as 580-some complaints, and we’ve watched it dwindle,” Ms. Pittinger said during a budget hearing before Pittsburgh City Council last week. “We’ve watched it spike up, and we’ve watched it come down.”
The Citizens Police Review Board, or CPRB, handled 227 complaints in 2021; 253 in 2020; 253 in 2019; 2713 in 2018; and 290 in 2017.
“I think it reflects well on the improvements to the relationships between the community and police,” Ms. Pittinger said, though she cautioned that “we can only measure based on the people that come to us.”
The nature of complaints has changed, too, she said — there are fewer allegations related to use of force and warrantless searches and seizures.
“What we’re seeing now more is the majority of complaints being about … the demeanor of police officers.”
Ms. Pittinger said there could be a variety of reasons for the increase in complaints about the conduct of police officers.
“That could be attributed to a number of factors: maturity, age — age on the job, not chronological age necessarily,” she said.
She said those types of allegations, called conduct unbecoming of an officer, make up most of the complaints — so much so that the board held a public hearing last week to allow invited members of the public to share their interactions.
The hearing, held the evening after the she spoke to city council, was meant to be a venue for some who have had encounters with police to share their concerns. Plus, Ms. Pittinger said, “the board needs to hear about those occasions so they can consider whether it’s a unique personal thing or if it is systemic … or if there’s some need to look at how officers are prepared to go out into the community.”
She stressed that it was not a hearing meant to condemn all officers.
“It’s a very small amount, but it can be indicative of systemic issues, and that’s what our board has always focused on,” she said.
Cara Cruz, the city public safety spokeswoman, said police command staff personnel attended the meeting virtually and “always welcome hearing the concerns regarding the bureau of police from residents and visitors.
“ Pittsburgh Police work closely with the CPRB and also encourage anyone who would like to file a formal complaint to do so through the Office of Municipal Investigations, which investigates citizen complaints of civil and/or criminal misconduct alleged against City of Pittsburgh employees.”
The hearing, which was held via Zoom and lasted more than two hours, saw several members of the public describing interactions ranging from allegedly being screamed at by officers to having officers not show up for court hearings.
A bicyclist, Armin Samii, told of coming across a car parked in a bike lane on Penn Avenue in early October. He said he approached a police officer who was working nearby and asked if he knew who the owner was. The officer said it was his car.
“I asked him to please move his car and pointed to a spot across the street,” Mr. Samii said.
He said the officer eventually became angry and began shouting, “What’s wrong with you, don’t you have anything better to do than mess with me?”
Mr. Samii said his bicycle camera recorded the entire encounter.
Shannon Wintruba, a retired police officer, described approaching a man in a vehicle parked in her neighborhood and asking who he was, noting that there had been car break-ins in the neighborhood. She said she asked whether he was lost, and when he said no, she noted that he’d been sitting there a while and neighbors were getting concerned.
“He said, ‘It’s none of your business,’” she said. “I said, ‘I live here,’ and he’s like, ‘I know who you are.’”
She said when she asked if he was a cop, responded with, “Yeah, are you?” followed by “I bet you are,” when she said she was retired.
Ms. Wintruba said she and a friend — another former law enforcement officer — approached the man in the car again, and he began screaming at her.
“I felt his actions were completely inappropriate and out of line,” she said, noting she’d filed a complaint with the Office of Municipal Investigations. “Being a retired police officer, being in the public safety field … his actions were completely inappropriate and he could have handled that situation way better.”
First Published: December 11, 2022, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: December 12, 2022, 11:53 a.m.
