City Council moves ahead with altered stop-and-frisk bill

After months of holding the bill, Pittsburgh City Council has given preliminary approval to create a mandate requiring police officers to document why they believe they have reasonable suspicion to stop a pedestrian without a warrant.

But final passage of the bill is contingent on approval of a proposed amendment from the Public Safety Department that would change the language of the bill so that officers can verbally tell the person what led to the stop and give them a police report number that would explain the reasonable suspicion, according to Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz.

The bill currently states that if an arrest does not take place, the officers must provide the pedestrian with written documentation of why the stop occurred.

Before council can take a final vote on the bill, the amendment has to be considered by council and approved.

The bill, which was proposed in January, would add a section to the city code that would regulate pedestrian stops by police officers in an effort to reduce racial disparities in the way Pittsburgh police interact with residents, according to council members.

Officers would have to document the stop by using their bodyworn or vehicle-mounted cameras. They must also notify dispatch officers before executing the stop or any other documentation required by the police chief, according to the text of the ordinance.

The bill was previously held so that members of council could meet with Public Safety.

Councilman Ricky Burgess said that he and Public Safety met a few weeks ago and have agreed upon “what tweaks need to be done.”

Despite having to vote on an amendment at next week’s meeting, Councilman Bruce Kraus, a sponsor of the bill, said he wanted to get it moving because it has been on hold for several weeks.

“In light of everything that is happening today, as it relates to public safety and policing, I would really like to [approve] it today,” Mr. Kraus said.

Council President Theresa Kail-Smith abstained from the vote on Wednesday and said that she wanted to hear more from the residents impacted by this ordinance, particularly the city’s teens.

“It would be nice to hear what the kids say is needed, not what the activists are saying is needed,” she said.

As part of the development of this bill, Mr. Kraus said he spent every Monday morning for almost 20 weeks meeting with Black community members in various Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

They were gathering input on how to reform “policing into a model of protecting and serving” and that there was a feeling that some neighborhoods are being policed rather than protected.

“It wasn’t a rash decision by any means,” he said of the ordinance. “It was done with weeks and weeks and weeks of careful thought and direct communication with community leaders.”

Ms. Kail-Smith acknowledged meeting with community leaders but reiterated that she specifically wanted the youth involved.

“I think everybody’s a little affected, but right now I think our youth are affected in such a tremendous way,” Ms. Kail-Smith said. “I want to know what they think the answer is. If this is part of it, then I’ll be supportive.”

Ms. Kail-Smith has already organized a meeting with the city’s Group Violence Intervention program, local youth and their families and has invited Mayor Ed Gainey, according to the mayor’s spokeswoman, Maria Montaño.

The meeting is scheduled for “sometime in late June,” Ms. Montaño said.

Councilman Anthony Coghill also abstained from the vote, and Councilman Corey O’Connor was absent from Wednesday’s meeting. All others approved.

In other public safety discussions, members of council raised concern during Tuesday’s meeting about two ordinances that were transferring money away from a proposed project to create a new public safety training facility at the former Veterans Administration building in Lincoln-Lemington.

The two bills proposed transferring $ 1 million from the training facility into the major developments account for altering Penn Circle in East Liberty.

Jake Pawlak, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, clarified that this transferring of funds would not impact the training facility plans.

“Those plans, while still in progress, are simply not in a place where we can execute agreements,” Mr. Pawlak said. “On the other side of that coin, we have a shovel- ready project to complete the long-awaited two- way conversion of Penn [Circle].”

The money comes from the 2019 and 2020 budget year and are from bond funds, which the city typically tries to use within 18 to 24 months, Mr. Pawlak said.

“This does not impede on the public safety’s operational readiness,” Mr. Pawlak said, noting that this new facility was intended to be a combination of others that already exist elsewhere in the city.

The plans for the new facility, which were originally proposed under former Mayor Bill Peduto, are still in the works, and the mayor’s office remains committed to seeing them through, Mr. Pawlak added.

Mr. Kraus further explained that the money allocated for the training facility could be replenished in future budgets.

The price for the alteration of Penn Circle has also increased, due to rising costs of labor and materials, Mr. Pawlak said, which is part of the reason these funds are being transferred.

“It seemed prudent to us at this time to take dollars that we were not going to be able to expend this fiscal year and take them to shovel-ready project,” Mr. Pawlak said.