Foregoing a national search, Pittsburgh Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor said Thursday he will nominate longtime Pittsburgh policeman Jason Lando as the next chief of police.
Lando, 48, was a finalist for the job two years ago and has been chief of police in Frederick, Maryland since 2021. He was a member of Pittsburgh’s force for 21 years prior.
His nomination is pending approval from City Council. He would give the force, which has dealt with retirements, staffing shortages and forced overtime, its first permanent chief in more than a year.
“We wanted to name a full-time chief of police immediately because public safety is a major priority of our administration,” O’Connor said Thursday.
“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,” O’Connor said, adding that he’s “somebody that understands and knows Pittsburgh.”
Lando joined the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police in 2006 and served as a commander from 2014 until he left in 2021. From 2014 to 2019 he was Zone 5 commander, responsible for the northeastern section of the city. Bloomfield, Garfield, Highland Park, East Liberty, Homewood and East Hills all fell under his responsibility.
“Pittsburgh is in my heart,” Lando said at his introduction, standing alongside O’Connor. He said “you have my word” that he intends to remain in the post long-term, intending to stop a chain of short-term permanent and acting police chiefs.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Lando oversaw implementation of the Shotspotter gunshot detection system in part of the zone.
From 2019 through 2021 he commanded the department’s Narcotics & Vice unit.
Lando was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, when a gunman murdered 11 worshippers and wounded six others across three congregations in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. He had attended the synagogue growing up and his grandfather often attended services there, though not on the day of the shooting.
“Eleven beautiful souls were taken from us that morning,” Lando said during a memorial event last month, according to TribLive and other news outlets. “Eleven names that we say out loud, not only to remember them, but to remind everyone that hate will never erase their presence in this world.”
This marks the second time Lando has been named police chief by a Mayor O’Connor. Frederick, Maryland Mayor Michael O’Connor hired him as that city’s chief in 2021. A year earlier, he was a finalist for the top police job in Tacoma, Washington.
The Frederick mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police reform advocate Brandi Fisher said that when Lando led Zone 5, he “tried his best to embrace the 21st century policing model” introduced by Chief Cameron McLay early in Mayor Bill Peduto’s tenure.
“I don’t think we need to revisit studies or a bunch of meetings to try to figure everything out. That would be a lot of performative actions,” said Fisher, president and CEO of the Alliance for Police Accountability, in an interview with Pittsburgh’s Public Source. “We already know what works: accountability for officers and engagement with the community.”
Lando said community engagement is a priority. “Building meaningful relationships with our community is the only way we’re going to be successful as a police department.”
A fast process with little public input
Thursday’s announcement caps a dramatically faster, and less transparent hiring process than the one that led Gainey to choose Larry Scirotto in 2023. The city hired a search firm and empaneled a committee of citizens and law enforcement experts to interview candidates, ultimately spending more than a year on the task.
O’Connor began having private conversations with candidates before he won the General Election Nov. 4, he said, and made a final choice without disclosing a list of finalists or what criteria his team used in seeking candidates.
Fisher said O’Connor’s quick announcement sends a message — and it’s not one of engagement. “I wish that our incoming mayor would have adopted a process of co-governance and really worked with the community and got their input on this process when it came to selecting a police chief,” she said. If there was broad consultation with the community, Fisher did not hear of it.
O’Connor said he felt too much urgency to take more time before announcing a new chief.
“For too long we have not had a chief of police that was actually dedicated to Pittsburgh,” O’Connor said. “We had to make a decision and make it quick. But all those community members have a voice … I know that Chief Lando and his staff, we’re going to have them out in the community talking to neighbors.”
Former Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said that Peduto did not have an involved public process for selecting a chief, beyond City Council approval, which is an opportunity for public input.
Hissrich said in an interview that there is one item on the calendar that suggests the need for a rapid process.
“The time constraints and preparing for the NFL draft should factor into it,” said Hissrich, now safety director for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The draft is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of football fans to Pittsburgh in late April. “The new administration certainly has time constraints on putting together a good team.”
Lando said preparing for the draft will be one of his biggest priorities “on day one.”
“I know there are people in the department now that are working on it,” Lando said. “I would imagine as we get closer to the draft it will probably become more and more of their full-time job … We want this to be a success, and it will be a success.”
Faced a multi-victim shooting in Frederick
The job Lando is being recruited for in Pittsburgh is undoubtedly a step up. Here, he would lead a force budgeted for 800 uniformed officers serving 305,000 residents, compared to 150 officers serving 85,000 residents in Frederick.
Lando was tested just a month into his tenure in Maryland when a man opened fire in a Frederick office park in April 2021, critically wounding two people before being fatally shot himself at a nearby military installation.
Lando must receive votes from at least five of the nine members of City Council. He will sit for a public interview before council after he is formally nominated. It’s unclear when that will happen; O’Connor can’t nominate him until he takes office Jan. 5, and outgoing Mayor Ed Gainey is under no obligation to do so earlier. Gainey’s office declined comment on the mayor’s plans.
The bureau is currently led by acting Police Chief Marty Devine, who took on that duty in May after Gainey’s most recent nominee for chief retired before he could be considered by council.
O’Connor made stable police leadership a key plank in his campaign for mayor this year, criticizing the turnover that occurred under Gainey. Scirotto served less than two years before it came to light that he was refereeing college basketball games on the side, after telling council members before his confirmation that he would focus solely on police work. Scirotto retired under a cloud of controversy and today referees basketball full-time.
Fisher said she hopes O’Connor and Lando cement three aspects of Gainey’s policing legacy:
- Response by both police and Office of Community Health and Safety social workers to incidents stemming from homelessness, mental health crises and substance use disorders
- Anti-violence work, which she said saved “many young, Black lives from both incarceration and death” to an extent unmatched in Pittsburgh history
- Responding to youth gathering Downtown in ways other than “heavy policing tactics.”
Lando is the third major staffing decision O’Connor has announced in nine days since he was elected. He appointed Dan Gilman as his chief of staff, a role he occupied under former Mayor Bill Peduto. He said he will nominate first responder and army reservist Sheldon Williams as director of public safety.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
Rich Lord contributed.
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