Community conversations between Pittsburgh police, neighbors aim to turn concerns into change

PITTSBURGH — A new series of meetings between Pittsburgh police and neighbors will begin soon, with the goal of turning concerns into change.

The first of these five community conversations will take place this Thursday at the Bethel AME Church on Webster Avenue.

Pittsburgh’s police chief says the overall goal is to take recommendations from the meetings, operationalize them and then put them into action.

It’s a call to action for everyone who lives in the City of Pittsburgh.

“If we’re going to build trust within our community and within our police department, then we have to go to our neighborhoods,” said Police Chief Larry Scirotto.

Scirotto, along with stakeholders from the Black Empowerment Project, Alliance for Police Accountability, the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, stood in solidarity Monday night as they announced a series of five community conversations.

“We create a police force that is not using force, but is using conversation,” said Tim Stevens with B-PEP.

“We want everyone to be safe. Not just the communities, but our police officers as well and that’s why we are having these very important conversations, these very important dialogues for the community as well as our police officers,” said Quiana Buckner, the associate director for Alliance for Police Accountability.

Carlos Carter is the president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

“When we complain and don’t have action, we lose our power, and so this is an opportunity for people to exercise their power,” Carter said.

The conversations start Thursday and continue throughout October. Each session will start with a presentation from the Citizens Police Review Board and then an open dialogue format to discuss pressing issues and potential solutions.

Scirotto continued, “For a city, for a police department to be built upon trust, and that’s what has been missing with law enforcement and specifically communities of color for decades. And this is an opportunity for us to set the standard that other cities in America will want to model.”

City residents who were present for Monday’s announcement weighed in.

Carmen Brown said, “My biggest concern in my community is investigations and those things: they’re lacking on those investigations.”

William Anderson said, “The change in the perception of the police department comes from the community up, not the top down.”

These meetings will be held in different sections of the city to address the specific needs of each community. The goal is to have an analysis from these meetings completed by Christmas.

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