City council approves Jason Lando as Pittsburgh's police chief

Pittsburgh City Council unanimously approved the appointment of Jason Lando as Pittsburgh's new police chief on Wednesday. 

Shortly afterwards, he sat down with KDKA's Andy Sheehan to discuss the challenges facing the police bureau and his vision for the future.  

Lifelong dream comes true

Born and raised in Pittsburgh and having served 21 years in the police bureau, being confirmed as chief fulfills a lifelong dream for Lando. 

"Pittsburgh is my home, and to be selected to lead the men and women of the bureau of police is pretty much the honor of a lifetime," Lando said.

But it's also one filled with daunting challenges, taking the reins of a bureau with the lowest staffing in its history of 760 officers. Many are complaining of overwork and burnout while struggling to keep up with the volume of calls. 

Still, after weeks in an acting capacity, Lando maintains that the public is safe and the bureau is not in crisis. He has high praise for the professionalism of the staff and the current efforts to quell street crime Downtown and on the South Side, as well as the Violent Crime Unit taking guns off the street. 

"I'm not saying we don't have things to work on, but I'm not walking away from those conversations saying we're in crisis," Lando said. "We just have priorities we have to work on."

Lando discusses priorities 

To that end, he names four top priorities. First and foremost, fighting violent crime. Homicides are down, and he wants to continue that trend through vigorous enforcement. 

Secondly, he wants to better professionalize the command staff by giving sergeants and lieutenants outside training when they accept a promotion.  

The last two aim to make a better life for the officers themselves: addressing the wellness and resiliency of the staff through health and counseling programs, and to recruit more officers, and perhaps more importantly, to retain them long term. 

"It's great if we can get someone in the door that wants to come here, but we also want to figure out how to make them want to be members of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police family for 20 or more years," Lando said. "And not come here and get great training and experience and then go work somewhere else."

In his tenure as commander of Zone 5, KDKA covered Lando's efforts to engage the community through outreach programs and foster better police-community relations. That is now something he'll try to foster citywide. 

"We have to police in partnership with the community," Lando said.

He'll also try to ramp up the co-response of police and social workers to address people experiencing homelessness and people struggling with addiction.  

"Such a significant percentage of our calls have nexus with mental health, and we want to make sure that we're providing the proper resources," Lando said. 

In addressing the immediate needs, Lando wants to make the bureau a more welcoming place to attract and retain officers for the long term, fulfilling his vision for the future.