Report: Officer In Taser Incident with North Hills Man Plans to Return to Work
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the officer should be fired.
Pittsburgh Police Detective Frank Rende, whose actions Saturday prompted Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to recommend his firing, plans to be back on the job Tuesday, KDKA TV reports.
Detective Frank Rende was recorded Saturday outside the Claddagh Irish Pub on the South Side holding a Taser to Mark Keyser Jr., 27, of Ross Township.
Video of the incident was posted on social media the next day. Click here to see it. (Warning: the video contains offensive language.)
Rende wrote in a criminal complaint that he held the Taser to Keyser's neck but did not activate it. Rende wrote that Keyser was drunk and fell over into a white plastic fence because he lost his balance, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Ravenstahl made it clear to KDKA that he thinks Rende overreacted.
“At first glance, for me, completely unacceptable, flat-out wrong," he said. "I’m not an expert on procedures and policies, but I can tell you that I’m sure they were all violated in that case. To have an officer literally chase down the individual and use force like he did is just something that will not be tolerated and not accepted.
Again, I want to give the public safety director and the chief the benefit of a conversation, but at this point, I see no reason that this individual should not be terminated.”
The incident is under review by the Pittsburgh Office of Municipal Investigations and Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board.
According to the Post-Gazette, Detective Rende has been accused at least a dozen times of conduct unbecoming an officer, including verbal abuse and excessive force.
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Sharon Klaiber
8:38 am on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
I watched the video and this Officer most definitely was outside of the law. He needs to be terminated from law enforcement immediately. I pity his wife and children, if he has them, because I can only imagine how he must treat them.
Steeler Fan
12:30 pm on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
This officer is way out of control and presented a danger to everyone by waiving the Tazer with his finger on the trigger. He is normally a detective and not used to handling crowds. He borrowed a uniform so he could make some overtime. History of the same kind of behavior according to the news paper. Please do not wait till he hurts someone. Get rid of him.