Pittsburgh working on tactics to recruit, retain police officers

PITTSBURGH — Police officers are typically the people who respond on potentially your worst day.

“They go out and serve the citizens and visitors of the city of Pittsburgh,” said Commander Anthony Palermo with Pittsburgh Police.

But lately, it’s become harder to recruit and retain officers. The city’s current staffing is 765 officers with 850 budgeted positions.

“We were Pittsburgh, people came to us. Now the competition is a little stiffer, so we have to go out there and sell ourselves. We aren’t the only people in this boat,” Palermo said.

So now the city is beefing up its tactics. In the last year, grant funding has allowed for a full-time recruitment officer and 15 part-timers. Now the City Council has given its first approval to bring on an Arizona-based company, Performance Protocol, to help improve the process.

“The fact that their specialty was public safety. Their willingness to come audit and evaluate not just the bureau’s process but how human resources and civil service conducts their hiring processes,” Palermo said.

Retaining is also a factor in staffing. The city has changed pathways within the department to help officers go from patrol to specialty. But City Council member Anthony Coghill thinks there needs to be more as many of the officers who aren’t retiring are leaving for other departments right in our region.

“I would like to see a commitment from new recruits to stay on with the Pittsburgh Police force for at least five years, and I would like to see whether any municipality that wants to hire our police officers should pay us back for the training and resources we put into that officer,” Coghill said.

While Coghill looks for legislation to make a change like that, he along with police leadership hopes this new company can make some headway in the next year.

“Every advantage we can give ourselves to sell the opportunity we have here in Pittsburgh is a benefit to us,” Palermo said.

City Council will have to give the contract a final vote on Tuesday, when that happens the hope is to get the company in to start the process as soon as possible.

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