FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2002 WWW.USDOJ.GOV CRT (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 WASHINGTON, D.C. The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached an agreement with the city of Pittsburgh to release the Pittsburgh Police Bureau (PBP) from a consent decree, while maintaining and strengthening measures covering the city office responsible for investigating civilian complaints of police misconduct.
"This agreement recognizes the enormous improvements in the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police over the last five years," said Ralph F. Boyd Jr., Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "Under the leadership of Police Chief Bob McNeilly and because of the hard work of the rank and file men and women working in the PBP, the agency has fulfilled the consent decree requirements and become a model for good police practices that protect citizens' constitutional rights while effectively fighting crime." The agreement was submitted to the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as a proposed stipulated order. The order would modify the April 1997 consent decree, which provided for improved training, supervision, discipline and complaint procedures to resolve the Justice Department's claims of a pattern of police misconduct.
The city's compliance with the consent decree has been reviewed by an auditor, Dr. James Ginger, who has made quarterly reports to the court. The Nineteenth Quarterly Report, which also is being filed today, documents the Police Bureau's continuing full compliance, as well as the continuing problems at the Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI) that are addressed by today's agreement. The auditor has attributed the failure of OMI to comply largely to the significant backlog of misconduct complaints and the failure to investigate complaints thoroughly.
To address these long-standing problems in the complaint investigation process, the stipulated order includes certain enhanced requirements for OMI. For example, the office must hire additional staff, eliminate its backlog by Dec. 31, 2002, and provide the Justice Department and auditor with regular, detailed progress reports. The auditor will continue to assess and publicly report on OMI's compliance.
Assistant Attorney General Boyd added, "Regarding the Pittsburgh Police Bureau, this agreement demonstrates the Justice Department's commitment to law enforcement agencies acting under settlements or decrees. If they hold up their end of the deal, we will hold up ours the Department will get out of those departments showing substantial compliance for the agreed amount of time. As to OMI, we are hopeful that these additional provisions will assure timely, high quality investigations of citizen complaints of police misconduct." 02-499
Source: US Department of Justice
