CPRB Praises Judge Wettick's G20 Ruling

Elizabeth Pittinger, Executive Director of the CPRB, says Senior Common Pleas Judge Stanton Wettick's decision ordering the Bureau of Police to provide documents requested by the Citizen Police Review Board will enable the Board to do its job better. She says the May 1997 City Charter amendment establishing the CPRB charges it with looking at overall police policy as well as individual citizen complaints, but there's been a dispute about this with every administration.

Based on the information provided, the Board will issue a report on how police/citizen interaction was affected by law enforcement policies implemented during the G20, with the aim of being a useful planning tool for Pittsburgh or other cities hosting large national security events in the future.

The CPRB will continue investigating individual citizen complaints from the G20. Pittinger says most individual police officers, especially over the past 4 to 5 years, cooperate with CPRB investigations, though she believes the Fraternal Order of Police still advises members not to. She says the Board doesn't criticize any officer for exercising his or her 5th amendment rights, like any other citizen.