An alteration in the operation of the Pittsburgh law enforcement department has been implemented. The crux of the change revolves around the police force not physically answering calls unless they fall under the category of ‘in-progress emergencies.’ As a result, a system in which such non-emergency calls are directed to a telephone recording unit has been put in place.
The city’s official online platform delineates the developments. It reveals the establishment of an enhanced Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU), operational from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily, inclusive of weekends. Non-urgent calls that do not necessitate an in-person law enforcement presence would be assigned to the TRU.
However, the TRU’s jurisdiction does not extend to all call categories. Specifically, the TRU won’t handle any ‘in-progress’ calls if a suspect could potentially still be at the location, situations where someone might need medical assistance, domestic dispute cases, calls involving hard evidence or where the Mobile Crime Unit needs to examine the site.
Interestingly, between the hours of 3 and 7 a.m., a period typically characterized by a decreased frequency of 911 calls, no office-based officers would be found at the six police stations around the city. A compensatory system, utilizing call boxes routed to 911, has been set up.
On the topic of personnel resources, some nights might witness the entire city being patrolled by merely 22 officers. ‘Despite the low figure, we believe this staffing level is sufficient to cover the city during those quiet early hours, comprising just 8% of total call time,’ confidently declared Pittsburgh’s Police Chief Larry Scirotto.
Along with these changes, certain types of calls, including cases of theft, harassment, criminal mischief, and burglary alarms, will not receive a direct physical response from officers. Chief Scirotto justified this alteration, pointing to a decline in the city’s police personnel.
Sympathetic to the circumstances, the chief highlighted the reduction in officer numbers from 835 at the start of 2023 to a present quantity of 740. With an optimal full staff believed to be around 900, the police force clearly faces substantial staffing challenges.
The chief, having been engaged in strategic planning, elaborated on the former system. He referred to an imbalance where about a third of the police officers worked the night shift, even though almost two-thirds of the call volume came in the more sociable hours, between 2 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Memorably, he remarked, ‘This made one shift overly stretched, under-resourced, while another was experiencing a surplus of staff. Therefore, this overhaul was fundamentally important.’ The newly implemented changes aim to rectify this mismatch of resources.
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on YouTube to Support Real News Now
In a conversation with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Scirotto clarified last week that ‘On an average night, we used to have around seven officers patrolling each zone, tallying about 42 officers. We needed to cut down 12 officers, not 112 as some might think.’
Bob Swartzwelder, holding the position as the president of the Fraternal Order of Police #1, expressed skepticism regarding the new measures. ‘The police are running short on manpower at an alarming rate and it’s becoming an increasingly taxing situation’, he ominously observed.
Swartzwelder did recognize there might be approximately 25 to 30 officers in operation during the 3-7 a.m. shift, but emphasized they are engaged in specialized tasks. His concerns, thus, were centered around these officers being potentially overloaded by an upsurge in the number of tasks.
‘The current strategic approach seemingly relies on a combination of hope and reliance on data’, Swartzwelder commented with an air of hesitancy. He left an open-ended remark ‘Whether this strategy proves to be the right or turns disastrous, only time will tell.’
Overall, the changes seem to be an attempt to align resources with needs. While every city hopes to have a full, robustly staffed police department, adjustments must be made to address shortages. Clearly, not everyone is sold on the idea, but it is an adaptive strategy that carries potential benefits.
As the city of Pittsburgh steps into this new method of law enforcement operation, it presents a test case. Only with the passage of time, observation, and revisions as necessary, will the effectiveness of this approach in response to personnel shortages and operational need, become discernible.
