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Mayor plans to return special badges ordered for his cabinet members

PITTSBURGH — Mayor Bill Peduto said he recently discovered that special public safety badges had been ordered for every member of his cabinet, and he's hoping they can be returned.

"You don't really need the badges," said Tim McNulty, the mayor's spokesman.

Target 11 investigator Rick Earle reported the city's emergency management department ordered more than a dozen of them.

McNulty said it's a practice that goes back several administrations. 

"It goes back to the Murphy administration.  The emergency management people for the city have been using the badges since them.  When this administration came in office in January, they ordered a bunch for top personnel here, and they mayor just wanted to make sure that only the right people had them," he said.

A decade ago, Target 11 reported about the special deputy badges in the Sheriff's Department and how they were used for everything from free parking to getting out of traffic tickets.  Those badges have been eliminated.

McNulty said the mayor confiscated all but four special badges after finding out about them.

The only people with badges are the mayor and his chief of staff, chief operations officer and the public works director.  McNulty said those are the people the mayor felt needed badges for around the clock access to emergencies.

McNulty doesn't know how much the badges cost, but he said the administration is hoping to return them for a full refund.

WPXI

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