Pittsburgh chief is focus of police union no confidence vote
PITTSBURGH – The city’s police union is surveying officers about Chief Cameron McLay ahead of a no-confidence vote planned for next month.
The Fraternal Order of Police, Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1, which represents most of the nearly 900 city officers, have clashed with McLay over several issues since he took the job in September 2014 under Mayor Bill Peduto.
Among other things, McLay has been criticized for addressing the Democratic National Convention in uniform.
Although the chief defended his remarks as nonpartisan and meant to stress the need for better police-community relations, the union says the appearance violated a conduct policy in which police cannot participate in politics in uniform. McLay called for the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations and the Citizens Police Review board to determine if he violated the policy.
OMI and the review board investigate allegations of police misconduct and usually act on complaints filed by citizens or other outside agencies. Both are empowered only to make nonbinding disciplinary recommendations, and Peduto makes it clear he supports McLay.
“I stand with Chief McLay and the men and women of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police who are working hard, every day, to reform the bureau. Change is never easy, but we remain committed to seeing it through,” Peduto said in a statement.
Rank-and-file officers have bristled under the reform-minded chief, who angered them in January 2015 by retweeting a picture that shows him holding a sign that said, “I resolve to challenge racism (at) work” with the hashtag “end white silence.”
McLay, who is white, posed with the sign at a New Year’s Eve celebration in the wake of demonstrations by Black Lives Matter and other groups over the killings of black men by police in Missouri and New York City.
The union said the sign painted city officers as racists and violated a policy governing police participation in social media. McLay disagreed but also called for the internal watchdog agencies to review the tweet. That resulted in no disciplinary recommendation.
Officers have since clashed with the chief by refusing to volunteer in large enough numbers for overtime shifts to cover the Pittsburgh Marathon and a Beyonce concert, then protested the forced overtime that resulted.
The FOP’s online survey precedes a planned no-confidence vote at a union meeting Sept. 15.
Union president Robert Swartzwelder told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which first reported the no-confidence survey, that union members asked for the vote.
“It’s a symbolic gesture of ‘this is what the membership believes,'” Swartzwelder said.