Pittsburgh Council split on hiring consultant for review of police actions during protests

Pittsburgh City Council members were evenly split Wednesday over a Citizen Police Review Board request to hire a consulting company for a review of police actions during recent protests.

The CPRB had requested $25,000 to hire Texas-based Densus Group to assess police use of force during protests Downtown and in East Liberty between May 30 and June 1 following the death of George Floyd while in Minnesota police custody.

Council gave preliminary approval for the funding, but split 4-4 on hiring Densus Group with President Theresa Kail-Smith and members Deb Gross, Erika Strassburger and Anthony Coghill voting no. Councilman Ricky Burgess was absent. Both resolutions are scheduled for final votes on Tuesday.

Gross and Kail-Smith said they were concerned that the CPRB planned to hire the company without seeking bids. Strassburger said she was worried that the contract focused during tight financial times on “a fairly narrow topic in this large, large topic around policing.”

“I would encourage you to bid this out,” Gross said.

Councilman Anthony Coghill said a review of police actions was unnecessary.

“I think our police officers did an exemplary job throughout these protests,” he said. “I just don’t feel it warrants $25,000 to look into it. I think it should be done internally between council and the administration in saying here’s what worked and here’s what didn’t work.”

Local activists have complained bitterly following a protest in East Liberty on June 1, saying officers fired tear gas and bean bag rounds at peaceful demonstrators without provocation. Police said they resorted to “non-lethal” crowd control tactics only after a small group splintered off from the peaceful protest and began damaging businesses and assaulting a TV news crew.

The city created the CPRB more than two decades ago to investigate complaints about police misconduct. The agency received numerous complaints alleging misconduct following the protests, according to Executive Director Beth Pittinger.

Noting that protesters and police offered conflicting versions, she said the only way to sort out facts was through an independent, forensic review by unbiased experts.

“We require a professional perspective and a very limited view of what went right, what went wrong and what could we do better,” she said, adding that police officers and protesters were injured. “We have conflicting stories in terms of the use of force, the escalation of force. The police reported circumstances that differ from what the community has reported. We have to understand why those things happened, how they happened and what was the context in which they happened.”

The CPRB board on Tuesday voted to request the funding, but several members expressed reservations about Densus Group, saying its website depicts the company as favoring government, police and crowd control tactics.

Pittinger said she has dealt with the company since 2009, describing it as a group of “independent, professional experts on public order, management of crowd and use of force.”

She said CPRB would “consider its options” if council votes against the hiring next week.