PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates has learned that some Pittsburgh police officers who normally have off on Saturday were recently told their schedules would be shifted, and they’ll now be working Light Up Night.
At a police news conference about Light Up Night Friday morning, Assistant Police Chief Richard Ford defended the move. He said it’s all hands on deck, like the Fourth of July or the upcoming NFL draft.
“That’s kind of what you accept when you take this job is there’s going to be those days where you are expected to work so that’s our job,” said Ford.
But the last-minute change isn’t sitting well with some officers.
In an email to 11 Investigates, one officer wrote that the “...command staff has decided to force officers to work by abruptly changing our days off, violating the working contract and not compensating officers...”
The officers who did not want to share his identity for fear of retaliation added, “Many officers are unhappy with the way the command staff has decided to treat us.”
That schedule change prompted Pittsburgh Police Union President Bob Swartzwelder to file a grievance against the city.
Swartzwelder contends that Light Up Night isn’t an emergency, and he said the city has repeatedly said they have enough officers.
Swartzwelder has said for several years the city is in the midst of a severe staffing crisis.
With 178 resignations and retirements in the past two years, the city is down to 719 officers.
During the Peduto administration, the city at one time, had more than a thousand officers.
Swartzwelder said since the city hasn’t acknowledged the manpower shortage and keeps reducing the number of budgeted officers, there’s no need to force officers to work big events, like Light Up Night.
“It’s not an emergency. Light Up Night is nothing more than a party. It’s not a dire circumstance. If you don’t have the staffing, cancel the party,” Swartzwelder said.
“This is a large, scale event and it attracts potentially hundreds of thousands of people, and we have an obligation as the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police to protect the citizens and visitors that come into the city,” said Ford.
Sources tell 11 Investigates that not enough officers signed up to work Light Up Night and that’s why the department made the scheduling change.
Assistant Chief Ford said they tried to work with the officers to make it less painful and instead of canceling the day off, they shifted their schedules and gave them a different day off.
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