Cherepko talks crime, defends McKeesport police force

By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com

Referring to crime, McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko took time during his mayor’s report Wednesday to address council and a few residents in attendance about what he called “the elephant in the room.”
“All too often it becomes the elephant in the room that people don’t want to talk about, but we’ve had issues — lots of shots fired calls over the month of August,” Cherepko said as he looked around council chambers. “You know, you see a lot of things that come with that. The disheartening thing is you see comments of whatever people are saying, ‘Oh they’re not policing, they’re not doing this and they’re not doing that.’
“What I want you to know is that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
He said McKeesport police officers “do a tremendous job putting their lives on the line to try to make McKeesport a safer place.”
The mayor said he’s been seeing negative comments on social media from residents of McKeesport, and non-residents, that allege or infer that police and elected officials either aren’t paying enough attention to or doing enough to combat gun violence.
Cherepko said he tries to stay away from social media, but admitted he gets defensive when he observes “people bad mouthing my police department when I know they’re striving to do what they can, and people bad mouthing this council that’s a part-time duty that people do for next to nothing because people care about our community.”
“What, you think we’re all sitting at home and you think we’re OK with this and we’re not doing anything?” Cherepko said in response to the social media commentary.
He said McKeesport police officers do “a tremendous job” and that they are making “their damn best effort to do their jobs and do their jobs with respect, dignity, and treat people fairly.”
He said he and the police department’s leadership encourage officers to “treat people the way they would want to be treated if they were in the same situation.”
“The most important part, and it’s far from perfect and we need to continue to work to be as close to perfect as we can, but our police officers here in the city treat suspects and victims with respect,” he said. “And if they’re not that’s the goal. …We want to be a lead with everything that’s going on in this country around us.”

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