PublicSource (https://www.publicsource.org/author/author-jeffrey-benzing/)
Jeffrey Benzing is a reporter for PublicSource focusing on criminal justice and public safety. He previously covered foreign bribery and corporate crime at Main Justice in Washington, D.C. Originally from Texas, he reported on local politics, public safety and business in the Texas Hill Country for the Fredericksburg Standard Radio-Post. His writing and photography earned him first-place honors from the West Texas Press Association. As a journalism graduate student at the University of Maryland, he covered the state’s congressional delegation, examined juvenile justice in Baltimore and helped report and write an award-winning package on salmonella in poultry that appeared in The Washington Post. In his down time, Jeff enjoys playing and listening to music (and finding old records), reading fiction and exploring the city.
The City of Pittsburgh wants a federal judge to throw out a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former police officer who alleges he faced retaliation from a high-ranking official after uncovering what he saw as “waste and wrongdoing” in the police bureau.
A Pittsburgh police officer who filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit in February against the city and one of the Public Safety department’s top officials resigned Monday morning. Officer Souroth Chatterji, who joined the department in 2012, claims in his ongoing lawsuit that he faced retaliation for uncovering what he viewed as “waste and wrongdoing” in the city’s handling of police technology. Chatterji’s lawsuit singles out Deputy Director of Public Safety Linda Rosato-Barone. As a commander, she had supervised technology projects Chatterji was instructed to audit in 2015 by then-Chief Cameron McLay. Chatterji argues that Rosato-Barone blocked his promotion to sergeant earlier this year because he reported evidence to McLay that helped launch internal and federal investigations.
Rosato-Barone indicates that an internal investigation she initiated through the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI) into Souroth Chatterji was wider in scope. Besides Chatterji, it targeted former Chief Cameron McLay and key police personnel, including former Assistant Chief Larry Scirotto. These individuals were all involved in the McLay administration’s scrutiny of software projects involving Rosato-Barone and Plum-based B-Three Solutions.
We tend to think voters choose politicians. But what if politicians actually pick their voters?
That’s exactly what has been happening in America, thanks to gerrymandering, according to journalist David Daley, author of “Ratf**cked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy.”
B-Three Solutions plans to sue a Pittsburgh police officer who claims in a federal lawsuit that he uncovered problems with the firm’s police technology.
The fallout from the Feb. 14 lawsuit was “like a sucker punch straight to the gut,” B-Three President Michael Walton said in a statement, referencing media coverage of the lawsuit and statements from city officials.
Barely a half-mile from the controversial monument to Pittsburgh-born Stephen Foster — set for removal after being criticized for honoring racism — stands Parran Hall.
The University of Pittsburgh building is named after Dr. Thomas Parran Jr., a public health icon whose legacy is irrevocably tied to racist, unethical medical experiments.
Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert confirmed Wednesday for the first time that three police software systems the city paid for have never been implemented. Those systems are the same ones named in a recent whistleblower lawsuit as having been paid for and allegedly never finished.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Ed Gainey fears he’d be shot dead during a mass shooting if he were a gym teacher armed to protect a school. In that scenario, he imagines being seen by a police officer who doesn’t know him, who only sees an unknown black man with a gun, and wrongly pulls the trigger.
What’s holding Pittsburgh back? How are city officials addressing gentrification through redevelopment? And what would happen if Amazon were to actually choose Pittsburgh for its second headquarters? In a Facebook Live interview on Wednesday, filmmaker Chris Ivey gave his candid thoughts on these questions and why he’s worried that things aren’t getting better for residents, even as local leaders woo Amazon and paint Pittsburgh as a city of innovation.
Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert made the rounds to city council members last week to ease concerns over a proposed half-million dollar allocation to B-Three Solutions, a software contractor one of his officers raised concerns about in a recent whistleblower lawsuit.