PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates has learned that four community service aides hired by the Pittsburgh Police Bureau to take theft reports, accident reports and perform other police-related duties, now can’t do any of those jobs.
The city hired them before consulting with the Police Officers’ Union.
In his budget address last November, Mayor Ed Gainey even promoted the hiring of the aides.
“This year we hired the city’s first community service aides. They are unarmed responders, who respond rapidly to non-violent situations, like parking violations, property theft reports and wellness checks,” Mayor Gainey said.
But sometime after they were hired, the Police Officers’ Union filed a grievance and an unfair labor practice.
The city decided not to fight the union and then changed the job description and the title.
Earle questioned Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt about the decision to hire the aides in the first place.
Earle: Did you guys jump the gun on this program?
Schmidt: I don’t think we jumped the gun.
Earle: Because they can’t do basically anything they were asked to do in the initial job description.
Schmidt: There’s only a few things the union took issue with. Most of the things they’ll still be able to do. The only thing they’ll not be able to do is take police reports, and respond to police emergencies.
Earle: They can’t conduct preliminary investigations of nonviolent criminal offenses and prepare incident and police reports. They can’t answer non-priority calls such as vehicle break-ins, larceny, vehicle and boat thefts, animal complaints. They can’t investigate automobile hit-and-run accidents. They can’t file official police reports. They can’t examine accident scenes for signs of physical evidence. They can’t do any of this stuff that was advertised in the initial job description.
Schmidt: None of those things, no, because those are exclusive to police, so that’s like I said, it did roll out quicker than it should have.
Schmidt said the community service aides will now be called public safety ambassadors and they’ll work like the Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership’s golden ambassadors, who provide information and assistance to visitors in the Golden Triangle downtown.
With the shortage of officers, Schmidt said the Public Safety Ambassadors will provide much-needed relief for officers.
“They’ll be out in the community, walking the streets, engaging with folks, handling quality of life issues, making referrals to our OCHS [Office of Community Health and Safety] team, to the police if need be,” said Schmidt, adding that they’ll also do wellness checks, and free up police for other details.
“It’s trying to put a band-aid on something,” said Beth Pittinger, Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board.
Pittinger said she believes there’s a place for civilians in the department, but not doing an officer’s job.
According to the 2025 budget, 75 civilians will be working in the Police Bureau this year, doing a variety of jobs, ranging from office manager, to administrative assistant to fleet coordinator.
There are also civilian community liaison workers in each of the six police stations across the city and social workers from the Office of Community Health and Safety to assist police.
Earle: Sending them [community service aides] out to do almost police work should have been a no-brainier from the beginning. Hey, we can’t do that?
Pittinger: Exactly, and that was always from the beginning, what exactly do you expect them to do? You are going to hire 12 individuals to go out and pretend to be police officers.
Four who were hired last year are in training still, with plans to hire eight more at a salary of nearly $46,000 per year.
The total cost in the 2025 budget is $549,370.
The city also bought six new cars for the aides. They already put a community service aide logo on each of the vehicles. Those will have to be changed now to public safety ambassador.
Earle: You don’t think it’s a waste of tax dollars?
Schmidt: No, I think it’s actually helpful. I think it provides an extra set, like I said a force multiplier, while we are trying to continue to recruit officers. We need some additional help for those officers out there.
The President of the Police Officers’ Union, Bob Swartzwelder, said he met the new hires, but said he doesn’t know what they will do.
Schmidt believes the ambassadors will provide some much-needed relief for officers during this staffing shortage, and he hopes the program will ultimately serve as a feeder system for the police academy.
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