Pittsburgh police staffing shortage at 'tipping point,' officials say

Pittsburgh police ranks could drop below 700 officers by the start of 2025, leaving the bureau depleted and with low morale, officials said during a wide-ranging, three-hour city council meeting Tuesday on the state of policing in the city.

Thirty-five Pittsburgh police officers retired in 2022; another 39 resigned last year, many leaving for other area police departments; and 17 already retired or resigned in January alone, said Councilman Anthony Coghill, who chaired the special meeting. Coghill estimated 66 officers will leave this year and another 66 next year.

“As of 2025, the start of 2025, even with the recruitment class, [we’ll have] 669 police officers — that’s 250 less than we’ve budgeted for,” Coghill said.

Though Pittsburgh police now have about 820 active officers, that number is down significantly from the 1990s, when federal programs helped fund a bureau with some 1,700 officers, according to Councilman Bruce Kraus. Kraus called the drop in staffing “drastic” and “sort of frightening.”

A new class of recruits could add up to 30 officers next year — but city council worried if adding that was enough.

Robert Swartzwelder, who heads Fraternal Order of Police #1, which represents the bureau’s officers, put it more dramatically.

“You are at a tipping point,” Swartzwelder told elected leaders Tuesday. “If we don’t get it fixed, and we don’t get it fixed fast … you’re going to see a crime-wave that’s unprecedented.”

When it comes to a newly bargained police contract, the police union and the Gainey administration are waiting for arbitration talks to begin in May.

At several points during Tuesday’s meeting, Coghill and others seemed to act as intermediaries in those stalled talks, trying to find common ground and spark dialogue between the union and the administration.

Gainey, who also is in the process of selecting a new police chief, did not attend the hearing. His administration made its “best and final” contract offer to the police union last fall, his spokesperson, Maria Montano, has said.

Many Pittsburgh police officers are taking jobs with the Allegheny County Police or outlying suburbs, which pay much better salaries and have better-funded pensions, members of the police union said Tuesday.

Coghill and others toyed with the notion of charging departments who recruit Pittsburgh officers up to $50,000 for the cost of replacing an officer.

A detective or “master patrol officer” in Pittsburgh was paid about $52,000 or $53,000 a year in 2004, based on the 2004 contract with the city, according to Detective Jason Lloyd, who spoke for the union.

Over 18 years, through the 2022 contract, that salary went up $8.91 an hour, or 66 cents per year.

“I don’t think anyone at this table disagrees with the role salary plays [in staff attrition],” Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak told city council members. “It’s something that needs to be addressed.”

Pawlak and Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt frequently cited as a police incentive Gainey’s move to eliminate a 60-college-credit requirement for taking the Pittsburgh officer’s test.

Council’s response was lukewarm.

“[The perception is] you’re allowing the police to fall into disarray as a way of not funding them,” Council President Theresa Kail-Smith said. “I think people are tired of crime in the City of Pittsburgh.”

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger also raised, as a point of concern, the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police, and how that might relate to an exhausted police force without sufficient resources.

“I care about police-community relations and I care about the well-being of our police force,” Strassburger said. “Diminished morale could [lead to] a traffic stop gone wrong. … That’s where my mind goes.”

Swartzwelder, though, was quick to squash comparisons between the deaths of Nichols or George Floyd, which also was cited, and police here in Pittsburgh.

“I don’t think we have those problems here,” Swartzwelder said.

“Do not judge us by the sins of others,” he later added. “Please do not paint us with the same brush because our brothers and sisters have … done something heinous.”