The County Court of Common Pleas has upheld the March 2014 decision of an arbitration panel convened under Act 111 that permitted Pittsburgh police officers to live within 25 air miles of the City-County building in Downtown.
It is not clear what the City will do next, nor if the opinion states that movement should not occur pending appeals to higher courts. As we noted in a 2012 Brief, a change in state law (Pittsburgh’s police residency requirement was the last remaining police residency requirement written into state law) allowed the issue to be bargained on. The City placed a question on the November 2013 ballot to amend the Home Rule Charter to place residency requirements for all employees into the Charter, and that was approved. However, yesterday’s decision stated that the state bargaining law “…trumps the city charter”.
A recent Brief that covered residency requirements for police in other large municipalities in Allegheny County examined the topic.
