Parks and planning spending, plus police officer target, trimmed in proposed Pittsburgh budget

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey arrives on-scene to a shooting in Brighton Heights in 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource) Parks, planning and facilities spending would plunge in 2025, and officer numbers would remain historically low in Mayor Ed Gainey’s first proposed budget without federal pandemic aid. “PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region.& Sign up for our free newsletters.” by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource Mayor Ed Gainey rolled out his proposed 2025 Pittsburgh budget on Monday, signaling a meaningful downshift in how the city plans to staff its police bureau going forward.& Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said during a press conference the city does not necessarily see a need to return to its decades-old standard of 900 uniformed police officers. Instead, Pawlak said the city would seek to find the “right number of officers to complete the job,” and would look to increase the role of civilians in the work of the bureau. Under prior Mayor Bill Peduto, the number of officers topped 1,000. Even last year, when Gainey’s administration reduced the target number to 850, Pawlak said the eventual goal was to return to 900. The city might want to invest in “cardboard-cutout cops,” Fraternal Order of Police...