Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey has formally nominated Larry Scirotto as the next police chief.
Scirotto made his initial remarks as Pittsburgh’s likely next Police Chief at the City-County Building on Wednesday morning.
He outlined four priorities to start his tenure in Pittsburgh: reducing gun violence, improving police-community relations, officer wellness and focusing on the quality of life of residents.
“Over the next several months you’re going to see the department in a reorganization, we’re reevaluating every process, every unit, everybody’s roles and in those there will be obvious changes,” said Scirotto.
Scirotto adds gun violence reduction efforts will be implemented immediately.
But, Scirotto comes with some baggage.
He was fired as Chief of Police in Fort Lauderdale over claims he disproportionately hired and promoted minority candidates.
Scirotto filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and said during his initial press conference that those moves were based on merit, adding of the 15 promotions during his tenure, six were minorities.
“I was hired to create a fair environment where all of the officers . . . felt they had the same opportunity no matter what their ethnicity was, no matter what your gender was, what your orientation was,” said Scirotto.
There were also concerns over his other job as an NCAA basketball referee, suggesting it would interfere with his full-time job.
Gainey says Scirotto does plan to continue refereeing as Pittsburgh’s Police Chief.