What's Behind Rapid Turnover of Big City Police Chiefs?

Former Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto's abrupt retirement last month less than two years into his tenure placed him among the ranks of dozens of big city chiefs who have left their posts after short stints in recent years, though experts are split on whether such rapid turnover is of growing concern or par for the course.

"This is nothing specific to Pittsburgh or Pennsylvania," said Ben Brown, a criminal justice professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. "If you look around the country, you would find that's pretty normal."

Mayor Ed Gainey announced Mr. Scirotto as his pick for chief in May 2023. The chief retired effective Nov. 1 and the city hasn't yet said what process it will follow to find his replacement.

Eighteen months in the job isn't too out of the ordinary, Mr. Brown said, noting it would be more unusual to see a city chief who'd held the role for 10 or 15 years.

"Nationwide ... the average might be four or five years, but you're going to have considerable variation from one place to the next," he said. "Serving a year or two and then moving on or being removed ... isn't unusual."

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Major City Chiefs Association, 75 of its total 79 member police departments across the United States and Canada saw a change in leadership from 2020 through late 2023, according to the Austin Monitor news site.

And Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a D.C.-based nonprofit research and policy organization, said out of major U.S. cities, about 75% have experienced turnover in the past five years.

Pittsburgh would have been among them. Former Chief Scott Schubert retired in mid-2022, sparking the nearly year-long search that resulted in Mr. Scirotto's hiring. Mr. Schubert outlasted the average police chief, retiring after more than five years as chief and after decades with the department.

Mr. Brown co-authored a 2019 study that looked specifically at police chief turnover in Texas and the driving factors.

"The simple fact of the matter is that being a chief of police is a political position," he said.

The chiefs who lasted the longest, based on those he studied, were appointed solely by a mayor. When multiple people or multiple groups are part of the hiring process, there are competing interests, Mr. Brown said.

During the city of Pittsburgh's last nationwide search, Mr. Gainey set up three panels to interview candidates: One made up of the mayor's staff, one made up of police union officials, and one made up of community leaders, activists and academics.

The final choice has to be someone that all those people can get behind.

"It may just be somebody that is not necessarily the best for the job or the person who was most liked, but the person all factions find tolerable," Mr. Brown said. "Some folks want more aggressive policing, some folks want less aggressive policing — it essentially might boil down to who they can best stomach."

Mr. Wexler offered a similar sentiment: He said citizen input on police chief hiring often comes from citizens who have special interests, and those special interests can cancel each other out.

"It's really important to get input at the front end. Then, ultimately, this is a decision the mayor has to make," Mr. Wexler said. "Getting advice is one thing. Getting everybody to agree may sometimes result in the lowest common denominator in terms of ability to make changes."

Driving forces

Mr. Brown said the turnover isn't a new issue.

"Maybe it's gotten a little bit worse over the past five or 10 years, but I'm not sure about that," he said. "A lot of it just boils down to local politics and economics."

Protests and civil unrest rocked cities across the country after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died in 2020 when he was pinned to the ground by a former Minneapolis police officer's knee.

Mr. Brown said he doesn't think civil unrest or a push for reform is to blame for the police department changes: "The short tenure of police chiefs has been a problem since long before Black Lives Matter or the protests."

Mr. Wexler took a different view.

He said the scrutiny on police departments in the post- George Floyd era combined with the need to always be improving has made the job as high-pressure as it's ever been. He called the past several years a period "unlike any we've seen in policing in some time."

"Expectations on police chiefs have never been higher in terms of crime, quality of life and citizen satisfaction," he said.

Problems facing departments as a whole also trickle upward.x

"Sometimes it boils down to just money issues," Mr. Brown said. "Some cities have problems recruiting and retaining officers because the pay isn't comparable with what other places can offer, and chiefs are stuck dealing with that."

Mr. Scirotto was hired in 2023 with a salary of $160,000. He received a $25,000 bump in 2024 to just over $185,000. Mr. Gainey's draft 2025 budget initially included a slight bump to around $187,000. The final budget adopted earlier this month sets the police chief salary at $190,965.

Sometimes, the turnover isn't even indicative of a larger issue, Mr. Brown said.

"These highly experienced police chiefs — these people who really understand the game — will just move on every four or five years expecting that they are not going to last any longer than that," he said.

He pointed to Art Acevedo, the former chief in Austin, Texas, who was hired in 2016 to lead Houston's police department. Five years later, in early 2021, Mr. Acevedo was tapped to take over the Miami police department. He was fired from that post just a few months later. In November 2022, he was appointed acting chief of the troubled Aurora, Colo., police. He resigned from that position in early 2024.

"You'll see that with a few of these individuals who have overseen some major metro police departments — just moving every few years," he said. "That's essentially how the game is played."

The Aurora Police Department has faced its own high turnover rate in recent years, seeing six short-term chiefs in as many years. The roughly 750-officer department has been under a consent decree with state Attorney General Phil Weiser's office since 2022.

Mr. Weiser said earlier this year that he worries the turnover means there will still be a need for independent oversight even after the consent decree expires in 2027, and he called for the city to establish its own independent monitor for the department.

"My concern is the need for continuous improvement doesn't end at the termination of the consent decree," he told FOX31. "The need for building community trust and ensuring there's trusted oversight doesn't end. With the sixth police chief in six years, we need stability. We need ongoing oversight."

Turnover among Pittsburgh's top cops

In Pittsburgh, city officials have remained mum on what the future holds for the chief position. Christopher Ragland, a former assistant chief, was appointed acting chief upon Mr. Scirotto's retirement.

Olga George, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gainey, declined to say whether the city will open another nationwide search or if the permanent position is Chief Ragland's to lose.

Mr. Scirotto's retirement followed a week of controversy brought about by the announcement that the then-chief would return to officiating college basketball part-time.

A longtime NCAA ref, he assured City Council members he would not officiate while serving as chief, though he's since said the plan was always to revisit the question after a year on the job. He officiated an exhibition game in Michigan Oct. 13, news of which came to light a few days later.

The mayor and Mr. Scirotto both assured residents that the chief could manage his duties as head of the bureau while officiating games during his weekends and days off. City Council members were blindsided by the announcement, and Mr. Scirotto gave his retirement notice a week later.

Pittsburgh has seen its share of turnover among its top cops over the years.

Bob McNeilly served in the role from 1996 until his retirement in early 2006, when Mayor Bob O'Connor tapped Dom Costa to take over. Mr. Costa stepped aside less than 10 months later when Luke Ravehnstahl became mayor after O'Connor's death. The Ravenstahl administration appointed Earl Woodyard Jr. as acting chief for one month until Nate Harper was promoted to head the department.

Harper resigned amid a federal criminal investigation in February 2013, and Regina McDonald served as acting chief through September 2014. Mayor Bill Peduto then hired Cameron McLay, the only true outsider to lead the department in its history. He resigned in November 2016, and Mr. Schubert was appointed acting and then permanent chief.

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