Pittsburgh SWAT: Cited for bravery, questioned for potential over-deployment
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Pittsburgh police SWAT team is an elite force with special training and skills called in to help with the most dangerous police calls, but some are questioning if they're called in too much.
They were heroes at the Tree of Life. Pittsburgh SWAT officers in military gear and with military weapons entered the synagogue to stop the carnage and subdue the gunman. SWAT Officer Tim Matson was shot seven times and later honored at the State of the Union.
But SWAT is now under a different kind of fire. During his campaign, Mayor Ed Gainey called repeatedly for the demilitarization of police. Activists like Brandi Fisher decry the repeated presence of SWAT in Black neighborhoods.
"When you're going into Black communities, you're going not just dressed as warriors, but you're in equipment as if you're going to war and our streets, our citizens are not a place to be addressed as a battlefield," she said.
In Pittsburgh, SWAT deployments have increased steadily over the past five years, from 208 in 2016 to 271 in 2020. For context, Philadelphia's SWAT, a city five times our size with a far greater crime problem, deployments were only slightly higher, increasing from 270 to 440 over roughly the same time period.
About a third of Pittsburgh's SWAT deployments are for the execution of warrants deemed as high-risk, like one in the Hill which resulted in a shootout between the suspect and SWAT officers. But critics say SWAT is used far too often for warrants of lesser risk.
"Unquestionably there are emergency situations where we need a SWAT team and a SWAT team is the right tool for that job but it's not every situation. It's not every warrant," said attorney Margaret Coleman.
In a few instances, they've hit the wrong address. Two years ago, the city awarded an $80,000 settlement to Tabitha Werkmeister. She said the officers hit the wrong side of a duplex, broke down her door and pointed assault weapons at her and her then-boyfriend.
"The most horrific thing to me about it at that moment was — you took my children. You took my kids out of the house without my permission with very little clothes on. They didn't know what was going on," she said.
And yet, according to the Citizen Police Review Board, SWAT's missteps have been few and far between, only three citizen complaints in the past five years. Director Beth Pittinger says they've consistently handled themselves well in pressured situations.
"I have to say they are probably the most professional, well-disciplined unit we have," she said.
The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police declined to discuss SWAT for this report while Mayor Gainey has given Police Chief Scott Schubert 100 days to come up with an assessment of the bureau with an eye to making change. Gainey told KDKA's Andy Sheehan he won't discuss the use of SWAT until he gets that report.
"One of the things I said in the campaign is dealing with the over-policing of Black and Brown neighborhoods. And that's why we're doing this assessment. As soon as we're done with this assessment, we'll be ready to speak," Gainey said.
That assessment should be due in April at which time the mayor says he'll be announcing his plans for public safety alongside with his new director of public safety Lee Schmitt.
