In the Mt. Lebanon Commission meeting on August 8, 2021, Commissioner Andrew Flynn announced that the Mt. Lebanon Police Department (MLPD) will be publicly publishing its full police policy manual on September 1st. Today is that day and we are excited to announce this major win: the Mt. Lebanon Police Department Policy Manual is now publicly available online! Check it out below.
To quote the MLPD’s website, “As an effort in promoting transparency and accountability, the Mt. Lebanon Police Department believes the public should have access to policies that do not compromise tactical and covert operations or the safety of officers and the public.”
The History of M.O.R.E’s Police Transparency Campaign
M.O.R.E is now a year old, and our first campaign ever was about police transparency, specifically surrounding the MLPD’s Use of Force policy. Our Justice Reform Committee (JRC) first met with the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners on August 29, 2020, to discuss this community issue.
For context, the JRC started discussing Lexipol in our 8/18/2020 meeting before we knew the MLPD hired them. A year ago today, September 1, 2020, a member of the JRC gave the committee a presentation that included a review of Lexipol.
In September, we received promises from Commissioner Steve Silverman and Mt. Lebanon Police Chief Aaron Lauth that they’d publish the Use of Force policy in December 2020. Despite Commissioner Flynn stating in his 8/8/2021 Community Highlights that the MLPD’s work with Lexipol began in October, we learned in this September meeting that Lexipol was already hired and working with them to meet that December deadline.
When we followed up with them again at the end of December, they told us that they were no longer committed to public release and further conversations would be delayed until Spring 2021. This decision was likely made as a result of Mt. Lebanon establishing their new Ad-Hoc DEI Committee which included a Police Engagement Working Group.
Since our communication channel was shut down through their delay tactic, we escalated. M.O.R.E issued a call-to-action and y’all answered loudly. Supportive residents made public comments at the Commission Meeting on February 23, 2021, and Commissioner Mindy Ranney responded by announcing that the MLPD’s Use of Force policy will be public.
When recent events in April led to M.O.R.E sending Chief Lauth and the Mt. Lebanon Commission an open letter asking for the social media policy, we received a response from Commissioner Leeann Foster that provided us the “late August/early September” timeline along with the announcement that it will be all policies. That leads us to current events with the 8/8/21 announcement and the actual publishing of the policy manual today.
Next Step: Community Policing
Police transparency was the JRC’s first campaign because it’s easy to hide a problem, or claim there isn’t one, when information like the policing policies is not publicly accessible. M.O.R.E advocated for police transparency so we can make the crucial first step in rebuilding community trust with our police department.
With the policies public, members of the JRC can look through these policies and identify problematic ones. Involving the community in evaluating departmental policies is one of the practices of Community Policing, a collaborative solution for a safer community.
