Mayor-elect Corey O'Connor officially nominated former Commander Jason Lando as Pittsburgh's next police chief Thursday afternoon.
Lando currently serves as Police Chief in Frederick, Maryland.
In Pittsburgh, he rose through the ranks to lead Zone 5. O'Connor says his goal was to find someone with better police-community relations.
“I am thrilled an happy that our nominee has accepted and I think you’ll see that Chief Lando is somebody that we wanted, somebody that we need right now in the City of Pittsburgh, somebody that cares about the community, understands that policing is not just making arrests and solving crimes, but somebody that believes in community policing which is something that I believe in.”
With low staffing in the department and officer burnout from mandated overtime, O'Connor decided to forgo a national search to get a police chief as soon as possible.
Currently, Lando is Police Chief in Frederick, Maryland. Before that, he rose through the ranks in Pittsburgh to lead Zone 5 in Homewood and East Liberty.