Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto says he is still focused on keeping the streets of Pittsburgh safe, even as he embarks on a return to officiating college basketball in his free time.
“I'm always available,” Scirotto said in a Wednesday-afternoon interview with WESA. “Whether it was being on vacation in Spain this summer, or whether it's being on the basketball court at UCLA in January, my commitment to this bureau, my focus and attention to this bureau doesn't change.”
Scirotto announced his plans to put on the striped shirt and referee in his off hours last Thursday. Mayor Ed Gainey told WESA on Friday that he’d decided to grant Scirotto’s desire to take on the side gig because of the city’s dropping homicide rate.
The city has seen 39 homicides so far this year — a drop of more than 11% from the same time a year before, when the number of homicides was already down by over 21%. According to city statistics, year-to-date non-fatal shootings are also down by more than a third.
Scirotto said that refereeing when he was hired in 2023 “wasn’t an option” because he didn’t “have the capacity” to both referee and be chief.
“There were a lot of heavy lifts within the organization. There were a lot of strategy initiatives that I wanted to move forward at that time, and I didn't have the bandwidth to do both,” he said. It was “absolutely the answer that I would give up officiating because that was the requirement in that very moment.”
Scirotto did not directly respond when asked whether he would give up officiating if homicides climbed back up. He said that if the city had not created a responsible approach to gun violence, he would “have never considered refereeing because I would have been failing at my job.”
Gainey spoke to media Thursday morning and said that "if things were to go south, we would reevaluate things."
But Scirotto said that even as he was being hired, he and Gainey discussed how “if we were safer, if we had met objectives toward hiring, if we had engaged community policing in a real, responsible way, that we would revisit what officiating looked like.
“This bureau, this city, I owe them all of my focus and attention,” he added. “At that time, they got all of my focus and attention. They still get all of my focus and attention. We're just in a very different place in 2024 than we were in May of 2023.”
In a statement last week, Gainey said Scirotto “approached us about possibly needing to step down from his role” in order to referee part-time. On Wednesday, Scirotto said that he did not give the mayor an ultimatum, but that the two “talked about, could I competently and confidently do both? And we agreed that I could,” he said.
“It was a conversation that, if I was or would be a distraction to the bureau, if I couldn't perform in the manner in which we both expect for the bureau, then it would be best for me to walk away. … I would have retired if we couldn't agree that I was capable and competent to do both.”
A typical referee officiates 60 to 65 games each year before getting into tournaments or playoffs, Scirotto said. He said he plans to use his nine weeks of accrued time off, along with weekend days when he is normally off, to referee.
“These are contractual days that I've been awarded to use, however I choose to use them — whether that is camping, or in this instance, that's refereeing basketball,” he said. “So it's not as if I'm going or need to go find other time to do this. It's a time that has been given to me by contract.”
Scirotto confirmed that he had already refereed one game, and he said “everybody was cleared before I refereed."
“There are no secrets, and there never have been,” he said. “And there never will be. I'm very clear with my schedule, the mayor and the director of Public Safety know the days away. They also know who will be in charge when I am away.”
Scirotto plans to take a $20,000 pay cut in the 2025 budget as part of the arrangement. That money will be paid to compensate Assistant Chief Chris Ragland for assuming additional duties as Deputy Chief — the person in charge whenever Scirotto is on the court.
“For the moments or periods of time that I'm unavailable because I'm on the basketball court. I have a deputy chief that is an exceptional professional, [and] has shown his dedication to this organization over the last three decades,” Scirotto said.
Asked what impact it would have if we were officiating a game at the moment a crisis unfolded back home, Scirotto said, “No one in this city should be concerned about their safety with Deputy Chief Ragland in charge.”
Scirotto’s enthusiasm for college basketball has caused controversy in Pittsburgh and in other posts prior to his hiring as police chief. But he said he enjoys officiating basketball for “the love of the game.” The adrenaline and need to strive for excellence and fairness, he said, has much in common with being a police officer.
He describes the plan to return to officiating as another opportunity for him to “follow his passion.”
It’s also a chance to connect to young people in the city through a new program called “Refs and Rooks” that he will start soon, funded through a partnership with The Hear Foundation.
Officers and young people will both be trained to be referees and obtain certification as referees at the end of the program.
“They're going to the training together. They'll grow together. They'll learn together. They'll referee together,” he said. “How cool is that relationship going to be to watch them develop together, for something that can be a career in either space, whether it's policing or officiating?”
The program focuses on teaching officiating but connects police with youth for mentorship and community interaction, especially with those ages 16 to 20 — a demographic with which Scirotto says the bureau needs to better connect.
“This is an opportunity to do something real different in that space,” he said."
Scirotto said he’s had the idea for the program in mind since he was hired, and he plans to work out logistics during the next two to three weeks.
The idea has “evolved just over time,” he said, “and now the timing is right.”
City Councilor Anthony Coghill, who chairs Council’s committee on public safety, said he still has questions about the arrangement.
“It’s hard to believe he’s going to do 65 games a year and still stay focused on the day-to-day operations here in Pittsburgh,” Coghill said.
“Me personally, I need to be convinced that his heart is in it, and what kind of time constraints are we looking at," Coghill added. "If he can convince us like he convinced the mayor, I’m coming with an open mind. I respect his passion.”
Coghill said he looks forward to Scirotto’s scheduled appearance before Council next Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
This story was updated to include comments from Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
