{"id":287897,"date":"2026-09-17T05:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287897\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T05:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:08:09","slug":"interim-wilkinsburg-police-chief-hired-for-permanent-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287897\/","title":{"rendered":"Interim Wilkinsburg Police Chief hired for permanent position"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Interim Wilkinsburg police chief hired for permanent position<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/news-team\/f72cd9ce-f724-4353-b00b-75b6f68bbfd9\" aria-label=\"Jordan Cioppa profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789621689_598_f72cd9ce-f724-4353-b00b-75b6f68bbfd9_1741638211.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Jordan Cioppa\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>WILKINSBURG, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">A familiar face will continue to lead the Wilkinsburg Police Department. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">On Wednesday, Wilkinsburg Borough Council voted to appoint Christopher Duncan as the chief of police. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">Duncan had served as the interim chief since May after borough leaders said longtime chief Ophelia Coleman retired. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">\u201cI feel great. I feel like this is a new beginning for the department,\u201d Duncan told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 Reporter Jordan Cioppa. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">According to Duncan, he oversees 15 officers currently. He said his goal is to have a full staff of 23-24 officers by the end of the year. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">\u201cOne of the things that we are going to focus on is recruitment and retention. I&#8217;m really big on training, so I want to get all my officers through trainings,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cAnd not just mandatory training, but the trainings that they desire because I\u2019m a strong believer that offering trainings for the things that they want, that\u2019ll keep them here longer, and it will also keep them happier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">When it comes to community issues, Duncan said he is staying focused on mental health. The department has already partnered with the A-Team, a program dedicated to addressing behavioral health and human service 911 calls. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to be working with other agencies as well to come in to help mitigate some of the issues as far as mental health that we\u2019re having,\u201d Duncan said. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">Wilkinsburg Mayor Dontae Comans said they interviewed other candidates but decided Duncan was best for the role.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\"> \u201cPlus, we wanted to show that we hire from within,\u201d Comans said. \u201c\u2026He&#8217;s been here for years. He&#8217;s been a sergeant. He&#8217;s been a lieutenant. He\u2019s been a supervisor for many years. So, he was perfect for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">Duncan has been with the Wilkinsburg Police Department for nearly 12 years, he told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interim Wilkinsburg police chief hired for permanent position WILKINSBURG, Pa. \u2014 A familiar face will continue to lead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[900,6093,119756,119758,4814,17728,47,4042,73,75,74,13987,13982,2583,119757,109912,78],"class_list":["post-287897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-action-news","tag-chief","tag-christopher-duncan","tag-community-issue","tag-department","tag-may","tag-mental-health","tag-officer","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-thing","tag-training","tag-wednesday","tag-wilkinsburg-borough-council","tag-wilkinsburg-police-department","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}