With murder rate down, Pittsburgh police chief is free to referee, Mayor Gainey says

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said on Monday morning he told Police Chief Larry Scirotto he would entertain the possibility of allowing the chief to return to refereeing when the murder rate dropped to a certain level.

Gainey said now that the city has hit that mark, he agreed to allow the chief to return to officiating college basketball.

The chief had been a college referee for years but said when he took the chief’s job in Pittsburgh, he would not ref anymore.

When he was introduced as chief last year he said he was done with college basketball and that he would be concentrating on the city of Pittsburgh and the police department.

11 Investigates found the video and broke the story last Thursday morning that Scirotto had returned to officiating college basketball earlier this month.

Scirotto said the Mayor and others in city government were aware he was returning.

But some council members and the Police Officers’ Union were caught off guard.

They said they had no idea the chief had returned to officiating.

“What I told Chief Scirotto from the beginning is that homicides was big. Everybody know that I wanted homicides down, or close to 30% reduction in homicides. I said, if that happens we can talk about the program he wanted to talk about in regards to him and the kids and the referring,” said Mayor Gainey.

The mayor said he plans to unveil more details about that program for city youth at a news conference Tuesday, but it’s unclear how the chief’s return to officiating will directly benefit or impact youngsters in Pittsburgh.

The Police Union blasted the decision, calling Scirotto a part-time chief in a department facing severe staffing shortages.

Scirotto said he will do up to 65 Big Ten games, on his own time, from November through March.

Some college basketball officials can earn up to $3,000 a game.

It’s unclear how many days he’ll be away.

18 schools across the country are in the Big Ten conference from the East Coast to the West Coast. The closest schools to Pittsburgh are Penn State and Ohio State.

Maryland and Rutgers also play in the Big Ten.

“Are you flying in the same day, coming back the same day, after the game, the same day?” asked Councilman Anthony Coghill, who had no idea Scirotto had returned to college basketball until he saw the 11 Investigates Exclusive report last week.

Coghill said he plans to question the chief before City Council.

“We approve his salary and before we approve his salary we need to make sure that you know we hear from him as to how he’s going to handle this,” said Coghill.

Scirotto and the mayor have named Assistant Chief Chris Ragland as the new deputy chief.

He will take over when Scirotto is away.

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