Pittsburgh Police Won’t Send Officers For Some 911 Calls

The Daily Wire

Officers will still respond to “in progress” emergency calls.

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police announced Friday that a new police Telephone Reporting Unit will respond to calls that “do not require an in-person response by officers.”

Officers will still respond to “in progress” emergency calls “where a suspect may be on scene, any crime where a person may need medical aid, any domestic dispute, calls with evidence, or where the Mobile Crime Unit will be requested to process a scene,” the police bureau said in a press release.

However, this means that calls for things like burglar alarms, theft, criminal mischief, and harassment will be handled by the call center or online reporting methods, according to an investigation by WPXI.

The Telephone Reporting Unit will operate from 7 to 3 a.m. seven days a week.

Chief Larry Scirotto said he wants to slash the police bureau’s calls from about 200,000 calls a year down to about 50,000.

Pittsburgh’s police bureau also said that officers will stop working eight-hour workdays and instead work four 10-hour shifts each week so that they will have three consecutive days off.

That change is meant to “enhance officer wellness.” …