Ready to serve
The new city police chief is well placed to lead
Acting police Chief Scott Schubert is one Pittsburgh City Council meeting away from assuming the top spot of a police force he’s served with distinction for nearly a quarter of a century. His formal confirmation is expected on Tuesday, after a hearing in council on Wednesday.
Chief Schubert has been in charge of the 900-member force since November, when former Chief Cameron McLay unexpectedly resigned after two years on the job. Mr. McLay was a reformer brought in from Madison, Wis., to run a department still reeling from the arrest and conviction of previous police Chief Nate Harper for diverting public funds.
Pittsburgh police were also dealing with the fallout from bad relations with various African-American communities as well as low morale in the ranks when Chief McLay took over. Chief Schubert enthusiastically supported the reforms put into place by his predecessor.
While Chief Schubert is as much a reformer as Mr. McLay, he’s much better known and understood by his subordinates. He’s been a known quantity since 1993, when he joined the bureau.
He came up through the ranks from patrolman to detective in the Mobile Crime Unit to commander of the Squirrel Hill substation to leader of the Special Deployment Division. This trajectory has prepared Chief Schubert for the challenge of leading a large and temperamentally complex bureau.
Pittsburgh’s African-American community knows Chief Schubert well. He has reached out to many of its leaders and attended forums, community meetings and social events. He’s made himself accessible.
When two officers responding to a burglary call in Larimer killed Christopher Mark Thompkins on Jan. 22, the homeowner they mistook for a criminal after he shot at them by accident, Chief Schubert expressed remorse to the man’s family and to the community immediately. Chief Schubert also publicly supported the two badly shaken officers involved in the shooting. He has a relationship with the rank and file that Mr. McLay was not successful at cultivating, though he gained recognition for Pittsburgh on a national stage and was probably the transitional leader that the city needed. If there is any major difference between the two, it is that Chief Schubert has already earned the respect and trust of his subordinates from years of working with them.
Chief Schubert’s forthcoming appointment is a sign that Pittsburgh continues to be serious about police reform and is ready to take it to the next level with a steady and experienced local talent at the helm.