Scirotto out as Pittsburgh police chief after 18 months

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto speaks at a 2023 press conference, as Mayor Ed Gainey looks on, at bureau headquarters. (Photo by Eric Jankiewicz/PublicSource) Mayor Gainey hired Scirotto last year to stabilize the bureau, but he leaves after controversy over his intention to referee college basketball. “PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh … Continued The post Scirotto out as Pittsburgh police chief after 18 months appeared first on New Pittsburgh Courier.

Scirotto out as Pittsburgh police chief after 18 months

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto speaks at a 2023 press conference, as Mayor Ed Gainey looks on, at bureau headquarters. (Photo by Eric Jankiewicz/PublicSource)

Mayor Gainey hired Scirotto last year to stabilize the bureau, but he leaves after controversy over his intention to referee college basketball.

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Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto is leaving his post after just 18 months, city officials confirmed Friday, after a week of controversy surrounding his plans to work as a college basketball referee on the side.

Department of Public Safety spokesperson Cara Cruz and City Councilor Anthony Coghill both confirmed Scirotto’s departure to PublicSource.

Assistant Chief Chris Ragland will serve as acting chief when Scirotto departs Nov. 1.

Scirotto wrote in a letter to his colleagues, published by WPXI, that media coverage of him had become a distraction for the department and his exit “is the right course for all of us.”

Mayor Ed Gainey’s spokesperson Olga George said in an email that the mayor “appreciates Chief Scirotto’s service and wishes him the best. [Gainey] remains confident in the leadership of the bureau and supports acting Chief Ragland in his new role effective Nov. 1.”

“I feel like it’s a great loss for the city,” said Councilor Khari Mosley, whose district in the city’s northeast has seen police-community tensions under past administrations. “I just built a really, really positive relationship with him. I just like him as a person as well. … Across the city, Chief Scirotto is very popular.”

Scirotto was not available for comment. Council President Daniel Lavelle did not respond to requests for comment. Fraternal Order of Police President Robert Swartzwelder declined comment, saying the selection of chief is a management function.

Scirotto’s 2023 hire as chief capped a search that lasted almost a year and represented one of Gainey’s biggest decisions in his first term as mayor. 

Scirotto worked as a referee in the Big Ten conference while he was chief of police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But when Gainey named him Pittsburgh’s chief in April 2023, the pair said they agreed he would stay off the court while steering Pittsburgh’s force, which was struggling with a staffing shortage.

That agreement was apparently tossed aside last week when Scirotto said in a press release on Oct. 17 that he would return to refereeing, with a deputy taking over his chief duties while he was on the court. He said he planned to take a pay cut to offset the deputy’s pay for that arrangement.

Gainey put out a statement of his own the same day, saying that Scirotto intended to step down as chief in order to pursue refereeing, but “I said there must be a better way. He’s too good, and we are making too much progress, not to keep up the fight.”

Coghill said Friday he has “a lot of questions to be answered” about the process that led to Scirotto’s hire, specifically about how an $80,000 background check process did not turn up an audit concerning Scirotto’s Fort Lauderdale tenure that TribLive reported Friday.

“When we made this hire, was all the information given to council?” Coghill said. “We need to have a conversation in public, transparently, like our constituents expect.”

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto, wearing a police uniform, stands for a portrait at Pittsburgh Police Headquarters on the North Side in front of boxes and filing cabinets on Monday, July 15, 2023.
Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto stands for a portrait at Pittsburgh Police Headquarters on the North Side on July 15, 2023. (Photo by Quinn Glabicki/PublicSource)

‘It can’t be all trauma’

“I think it’s really, really sad,” said Miracle Jones, director of policy and advocacy 1Hood Media, who participated in the process that led to the selection of Scirotto. She said she did not see a reason why he could not function as chief and referee on his own time, and that people who “want to harm the mayor” for political reasons turned it into an issue.

But David Harris, a University of Pittsburgh scholar of policing who served on the search committee that ultimately recommended Scirotto as chief, said he would have had concerns if he had known during the search that Scirotto would want to return to basketball.

“If he had said I want to be chief of police and, by the way, I’m going to be an NCAA referee, I would have said, ‘Isn’t chief a full time job?,” Harris said. “Why would we hire a part-time chief? … I can’t say if it would have changed the ultimate decision, but it would have concerned me.”

Jones said Scirotto’s tenure has been notable for his responsiveness. If advocates alerted him to an allegation, he would pull available video and provide solid information, usually within 24 hours. “That allows the community to breathe and not have anxiety, anger and frustration and not be triggered.”

Community pop-up events and “City in the Streets” engagements also helped to build new bridges, Jones said. “I do know that whoever is going to come next is going to have to continue to engage the community directly, to continue doing the outreach.”

She understood the chief’s desire to have a life outside of policing, in his off time.

“City workers, government officials, are human beings and need to be able to see the world outside of crime and violence,” she said. “It can’t be all trauma.”

Crime down, roster sagging, discipline up

Harris said the bureau had made strides under his leadership and homicides and other violent crime had fallen.

“It’s fair to give him at least some of the credit for the improvement,” Harris said. He said Scirotto’s decision to leave is disappointing but that if he was set on returning to basketball, “I suppose it was better that he left.”

Scirotto’s tenure included the adoption of a new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, which raised salaries but failed to stem a freefall in officer numbers. Long a bureau of around 900 uniformed personnel, it’s now in the mid-700s, and the administration is only aiming at 800 next year.

Gainey’s administration ramped up police terminations, some of which have been overturned in arbitration or by courts. The city now has a disciplinary matrix aimed at standardizing punishments when officers are accused of violating policy.

Picking the next chief

Mosley said the process that led to the selection of Scirotto was thorough, but he wasn’t sure whether it should be replicated.

“Take a little bit of time, take a deep breath,” he urged, “and figure out whether a national search or bringing up someone from within is the best course of action.”

Coghill said he thinks the next chief should be promoted from within the bureau. “I’m not for a national search,” he said. “I’m not paying for [another] $80,000 background check if they’re not giving me pertinent information.”

Harris said he does not know how the city will choose its next chief, but there is precedent for an internal hire without a national search. He cited Mayor Bill Peduto’s promotion of Scott Schubert to chief in 2017 after Cameron McLay resigned from the role.

Jones said the next selection process could start with the template Gainey established in 2022, but perhaps include more transparency, including community conversations with finalists. “I would even like people who have been arrested before to interview police chief candidates,” she said, adding that some might find that “a little too radical.”

City Council has a post-agenda meeting scheduled for Tuesday, titled “Chief Scirotto’s return to Collegiate Basketball Refereeing.” Its agenda shows Scirotto, Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt and Deputy Chief Chris Ragland as invited guests.

“It’s disappointing for me because I felt he was a good chief,” Coghill said. “I felt for once that we had stability.”

He said he doesn’t fault Scirotto for the move. 

“If I were his father I’d say follow your dreams, son. It’s a big deal to be a Big Ten official and it can be lucrative … without all the headaches.”

“I really hope that he’s at peace,” said Mosley.

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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