Regina McDonald is a longtime
Pittsburgh Police
The Pittsburgh Police (PBP), officially the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, is the largest law enforcement agency in Western Pennsylvania and the third largest in Pennsylvania. The modern force of salaried and professional officers was founded in 1 ...
leader, who was named acting
Pittsburgh Police Chief
The Pittsburgh Police Chief is an American law enforcement official who serves as the head of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, appointed by the Mayor of Pittsburgh. The Chief is a civilian administrator, and was historically referred to as the P ...
on February 20, 2013, its first woman chief. In January 2004 she became only the second woman to hold an assistant chief's rank in the bureau, becoming assistant chief of investigations after 4 years of heading the 45 detective strong narcotics and vice squad. Prior to 2004 she was named acting supervisor of the investigative branch on several occasions that then
Chief McNeily was called into military reserve service. She was promoted to commander in 1995.
Chief McDonald is a lifelong resident of the
Sheraden neighborhood and before joining the bureau in 1978 was a long time teacher and then city park administrator—at one point in the mid-1970s actually holding down three jobs. In the late 1970s she was one of the Pittsburgh police academy's first women recruits. One of her first assignments as a sworn officer was for the city's then newly adopted
D.A.R.E. program.
She graduated from suburban
Slippery Rock University
Slippery Rock University, formally Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (The Rock or SRU), is a public university in the Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania area of the United States. SRU is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Edu ...
in 1973 and earned her first masters from
Penn State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...
. In 1984 she earned a second master's degree in administration of justice from the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
with a final thesis concerning "police stress."
McDonald stated to press inquiries in January 2014 that she intends to retire around her 64th birthday in February 2014.
Mayor Peduto's staff, however, has given a 6 months or more timeline for finding a permanent chief.
In early September 2014
Cameron McLay was named to succeed McDonald who retired on September 15, 2014.
See also
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Police chief
A chief of police (COP) is the title given to an appointed official or an elected one in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. A chief of police may also be known as a police chief or sometimes just a chief, ...
*
Allegheny County Sheriff
The Allegheny County Sheriff's Office is a law enforcement agency that serves Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and is the largest sheriff's office in the state. The ACSO serves as a local arm of the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System in a nu ...
*
List of law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania
This is a list of law enforcement agencies in the state of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania says it has more police departments than any other state in the country. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics' 2008 ''Census of State and Local ...
External links
Chief makes more changes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Regina
Chiefs of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police
Living people
1950 births