Council interviews Pittsburgh’s next chief of police.

Federal immigration enforcement

As national unrest over mass deportations is increasing and Pittsburghers are in the streets expressing their views against them, Pittsburgh City Council took the next step in installing a new chief of police.

Acting chief Jason Lando and acting Director of Public Safety Sheldon Williams sat for a four-hour, police-forward interview with council on Jan. 28. They did so under oath.

Squirrel Hill native Lando has been the chief of police in Frederick, Maryland, since 2021, after serving as a Pittsburgh police officer for 21 years. During his time in Pittsburgh, he rose to the rank of commander and later led the narcotics and vice squads. He was also the incident commander during the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018. He was a finalist for the chief’s job in 2023. 

The looming danger of federal immigration enforcement agencies conducting a mass action in the city hung over the afternoon.

“Just like we have a plan for the NFL draft, and just like we make plans for weather events and snow events, I think we need a plan for this. Residents are scared,” Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield said.

Lando reiterated the city’s stance that it will not assist federal immigration enforcement. He said, “I don’t ever want to hear about a situation where someone didn’t call for help because they were so worried that the first thing that Pittsburgh Police were going to ask when they got there was immigration status.”

He committed to reviewing policy with leadership, the city’s attorney and affected members of the community to come up with a plan. This would include how both residents and officers can exercise their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly safely.

“I just think we should all be thoughtful about how and where we’re having those conversations,” Lando said. He expressed concern about Pittsburgh becoming a target for federal mass enforcement actions, though, if the city took an official stance against them.

While officers cannot interfere with federal agents — doing so risks federal charges for the officers — Lando said that there is room for nuance in situations where a federal agent is violating someone’s Constitutional rights.

Council Member Deb Gross of Highland Park asked how the department will handle things differently than in 2020 when officers responded to protestors with force.

Lando said the current expectation is that officers arrive at the scene without visible tactical gear and to introduce themselves, letting protestors know they’re around for protection and stopping traffic if needed. “It was a much more collaborative approach than we had previously,” he said.

Internal operations

In Maryland the department had some operational differences that he would like to bring to Pittsburgh including hiring an in-house licensed clinician to improve and maintain officers’ mental health and wellness, dedicated liaisons to marginalized communities, and creating a leadership academy. 

“We want to make sure that we are building a department that people want to stay at for 20 or more years, and that we’re not the farm team” for the suburbs, he said. 

As part of his department-building efforts, Lando is creating an employee advisory committee, another high point from his time in Frederick. The committee regularly brings together officers of different ranks and civilian staff from across the city to find where the department needs to offer additional support. He said it also helps prevent the department making decisions that seem like good ideas at headquarters that aren’t possible or practical on the ground.

“Something that means a lot to our officers is just having a say in how their police department operates,” he said. “I think morale, more than money, is one of the biggest things in policing that you need.”

Community engagement

Lando reflected on how policing has changed in 30 years, such as the shift toward community engagement and a guardian mentality over a warrior mentality. He said becoming a commander in 2014 changed his perspective. “When you hear from the community, they say, ‘Yes, we don’t want guns on our street. We don’t want drugs on our street, but we also feel like sometimes when you’re in our neighborhoods that you’re an occupying force, and we’re just as scared of the police as we are of the bad guys.’”

Warwick asked for community engagement to include allowing teenagers, particularly Black teenagers, to exist in public without “demonization” by adult residents. She said, “They are Pittsburghers, too.” She pointed to the success of local libraries being places where youth can safely socialize in public.

Lando agreed that, for instance, educating business owners on what is typical teenage behavior and does not need police intervention would be beneficial for everyone. “It helps the kids not have to be viewed a certain way, and it also helps us from being called to situations unnecessarily where there’s not a lot we can do.” 

He also praised the success of violence prevention and intervention and expressed his enthusiasm about continuing to support those efforts. “We cannot take our foot off the gas,” he said. As a matter of improvement, he would like to see greater coordination of violence prevention coverage to reduce gaps in availability in places and times of higher need.

Room for improvement

Even while the number of homicides has fallen in the city, Pittsburgh has seen an increase in fatal car accidents. Lando shared the need for clarifying with officers the parameters of traffic enforcement toward the end of Vision Zero. A 2021 city ordinance disallows officers from stopping drivers solely for infractions such as broken taillights and there is a larger, national shift in pulling officers back from traffic enforcement. This, Lando said, has resulted in apprehension among officers for stopping someone who runs a red light.

Council President R. Daniel Lavelle of the Upper Hill District said his understanding is that union pushback has resulted in continuing stops for minor infractions. He also expressed concern about officers inconsistently issuing civil citations for marijuana use, “especially in certain pockets of the city.” 

Lando said he was unaware of the enforcement discrepancies and would investigate the data. “As leadership, it’s our job to fix this,” he said.