The “Pittsburgh Point of View” blog is for the presentation of original, thoughtful, and constructive proposals that promote community well-being and trust between the community and police. We invite you to submit unique, original ideas developed through critical thinking. You might be thinking of a way to adapt a particular model of community policing or propose a police training method to meet our local community needs.

If you wish to submit a proposal for publication on this site, please adhere to the following:

1. Prepare your material in an organized manner.

2. Word count must not exceed 2,500 words, excluding attachments.

3. Your document must be submitted in *.doc, *.docx, *.rtf, or plain text format. PDFs will not be accepted.

4. Develop your idea(s) with the rationale embodying the goal that your idea intends to achieve.

5. References to other works must be cited with proper attribution and permission, if appropriate. Attachments may be included as illustrative of your thinking, justification of an assumption or a point made.

6. Do not submit a copy of someone else’s article or work as the body of your submission; it will not be accepted.

7. Limit your proposal submission (including attachments) to 30 (8-1/2” x 11”) pages maximum.

8. Submit your document and attachments to ppov@pittsburghpa.gov.

Submissions promoting violence, expressing personal attacks on any identified person, containing vulgarities, or reflecting non-specific criticism with no counter-proposal, will be rejected and not published on this site.

You will receive a receipt upon successful submission of your material. Your document will be reviewed and considered for publication. If selected for publication, you will be invited to present your idea to the Independent Citizen Police Review Board at a future public meeting.

The opinions expressed by guest contributors to this page represent the contributors’ current personal opinions only and do not represent the opinion or official position of the Independent Citizen Police Review Board, any Member of the Board, any Solicitor of the Board, any staff member of the Board, the City of Pittsburgh or any elected representative or any employee of the City of Pittsburgh. The contributors’ opinions are based on information considered reliable by the contributor and have not been validated or verified by the Independent Citizen Police Review Board. Publication on this page does not confer the Independent Citizen Police Review Board’s endorsement of the idea(s) presented by the contributor(s).