Major operational changes coming to Pittsburgh Police beginning Monday.
Chief Larry Scirotto is moving a number of officers from the night shift to days.
He says data indicates the officers were misallocated, leaving peak hours understaffed.
“Data said that from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. we had 8 percent of our call volume, yet we had 33 percent of our personnel working during those periods of time, so it didn’t make sense for us to continue that level of allocation on the night shift,” said Scirotto.
He added the afternoon shift received 56 percent of the calls with only one third the staff.
Another adjustment being made is how police respond to burglar calls. Scirotto says a large portion of the ones they get are false.
“When I got here, the number two call for service for the bureau was alarms and we had about 9,500 or so of them,” said Scirotto.
Now, he said officers will respond to those types of calls with secondary confirmation from their alarm partners that a burglary is in progress - like video, the sound of glass breaking, or interior motion.
“It’s not an abdication of responsibility it’s just focusing to where we know, that it tells us, where our resources should go and that’s one that was exhausting our resources for something, that was more probable than not going to be false,” said
Police will also transition to a four-day work week with three days off as opposed to traditional eight-hour work days.
Scirotto says the change is designed to enhance officer wellness.
“Those 52 days are important for my officers to be at home, to reset, to be emotionally involved in their children’s lives and their family’s lives,” said Scirotto.
Officers will also be afforded one hour of wellness time each week while on shift to use at their discretion.