Pittsburgh Police Zone 5 Announces Additional Safety Measures
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Threats have caused officers in Pittsburgh's Zone 5 Police station to change the way they do business.
"Right now, we've received a couple of just unsubstantiated threats," Pittsburgh Police Zone 5 Commander Jason Lando said. "We have some people working on vetting those to see if there's any accuracy to them. But, basically, threats threatening officers responding to calls, threatening them with harm or violence."
So, like some other police departments across the country, they are now using the buddy system.
"All police cars are doubled up, so they're all two person cars," Commander Lando said. "If we receive a threat about a certain area, any calls to that area will be at least a two car response."
Commander Lando says they are being careful about the information they release publically because it's a safety situation for officers.
"Some of the unsubstantiated threats we have received have been specifically Zone 5, and that's why we're taking these precautions," he said.
KDKA's David Highfield: "How many threats?"
Commander Lando: "Periodically, we'll see things pop up on social media, and it could purely be a scare tactic, but we have a job to do, and we're going to answer those calls, but we're going to be smart about the way we do it."
Zone 5 covers the Highland Park, East Liberty, Lincoln-Larimer and East Hills sections of the city.
Given what happened in Dallas, he's telling his officers to be cautious.
"Watch your back, watch each other's backs. When you go to a call, obviously, don't all focus on what's going on, some people need to focus on what's behind them," Commander Lando said.
Police say these new protocols won't affect police service or coverage, but they want to be cautious.
They are investigating the threats, and if they find out who is behind them, they say they will prosecute them.
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