The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police is, once again, without a leader.
This time, it is losing even an acting leader.
“Serving as your acting chief for the last four months has been one of the greatest honors of my career,” acting Chief Christopher Ragland told Mayor Ed Gainey at a news conference Tuesday.
That great honor was not enough to stay on the job.
Just one month after Gainey nominated Ragland to take on the role permanently, the 31-year bureau veteran not only withdrew his name but also announced his retirement.
Gainey followed the announcement with a news release stating Ragland would be going to work for a national firm.
“I receive the Chief’s news with regret. I felt he was the right man for the job and brought integrity and courage to a difficult position,” Gainey’s statement read.
The move is the latest in a series of pivots. Now Assistant Chief Martin Devine will become acting chief, picking up for Ragland, who did the same after the previous officially hired chief, Larry Scirotto, left.
Scirotto resigned when it came to light he was returning to NCAA basketball refereeing. The problem was not a chief who kept his eye on the ball. It was a secret agreement between Scirotto and Gainey to agree to just working for the city of Pittsburgh but go back to the basketball court after a year.
He followed Scott Schubert, who retired in 2022, leaving Tom Stangrecki as acting chief. That means Devine will be the fifth person to lead the bureau in the three years and two months Gainey has been mayor. With Ragland calling for the city to move “expeditiously” to find a permanent chief, that would make at least six.
This is a leadership problem — not from the chiefs or acting chiefs but from those in elected office. Ragland said he was exhausted by the process becoming “a political football with endless delays and pressure for political dealmaking.”
Much of that will fall on Gainey, despite Ragland saying the mayor “never made any requests of me other than to lead this bureau with integrity and honesty.”
But the Scirotto situation bred problems with city council. It prompted a bill to make candidates interview under oath and to have the would-be chief participate in forums in each of the six police zones. While those are not the fault of Ragland or any other candidate, they are more hurdles for them to jump.
However, policing is not something that can be — or should be — done politically. Officers have enough to do. They shouldn’t have to navigate the changing waters of who is captaining the ship every few months.
“I feel for the rank-and-file officers who have told me they want continuity,” said Councilman Bob Charland, D-South Side.
The city would benefit by that, too.
The next permanent chief should be someone willing to commit to the job, to transparency, to the people and to the city. It should be someone who values the law — both following and enforcing — and who will act as a role model. And it should be someone who is found quickly and is interested in staying for the long haul.
Finding that person should not represent a power struggle between the mayor’s office and city council.
