Police union fights move approved by city of Pittsburgh voters

PITTSBURGH — Voters in Pittsburgh overwhelmingly agreed to give the Citizen Police Review Board more power to investigate police officers, but Target 11 investigator Rick Earle 11 has learned that the police officers’ union is now challenging that.

>> RELATED STORY: Pittsburgh residents vote overwhelmingly to expand powers of citizen police review board

Union president Robert Schwartzwelder told Earle the union is filing a grievance against the city. “They’ve done an end run around discipline, which is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining under the labor laws of the commonwealth, and we have bargained this discipline process into our contract,” says Schwartzwelder.

The Citizens Police Review Board is not part of the grievance process, but Executive Director Beth Pittinger has strong feelings about the union’s effort. “What they’re doing is they’re fighting 78% of the voters that voted in November to extend the obligations of the board to conduct their oversight,” Pittinger told Target 11.

Watch the video above to see Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle break down the legislation and the next steps in this process.

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