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Council committee approves $32,750 police recruitment video, staff say funds come from PCCD grant
Summary
The standing committee recommended a one‑year professional services agreement with Kicker Inc. to produce a police recruitment video, at a cost not to exceed $32,750. City staff said the work will be funded from a PCCD recruitment grant and that marketing/distribution may be handled in-house.
The Pittsburgh City Council standing committee recommended authorization on April 2 for a professional services agreement with Kicker Inc. to produce a police recruitment video at a cost not to exceed $32,750 over one year.
Anthony Palermo, commander and chief of staff for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, told the committee: “We received a PCCD grant for to aid in recruitment roughly a year ago. So as our ongoing recruitment improvements are going on, 1 of the things we were looking for is to have a high quality recruitment video produced that we could use to social media, YouTube, traditional media, just to kind of promote the opportunities.”
Palermo and Fiona Kellman, DBA for public safety at the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, said the vendor was selected through a national RFP run on OpenGov and that the company will film in Pittsburgh with officers. Kellman said the procurement met compliance checks and that the process took longer than typical to complete paperwork.
Council members asked about scope, timeline and costs. Kellman said production was the vendor’s task and that the city would determine whether to handle marketing and distribution internally or to retain a marketing team. Palermo confirmed new policies produced via the broker or vendor would go into effect May 1 for insurance-related matters, but for the recruitment video he said the production would begin once final approval was granted.
Palermo placed the grant amount referenced at about $315,000 when asked by a councilmember; he characterized the $32,750 as a portion of that broader recruitment effort.
What happens next: Once approved at the full council meeting, Palermo said the city will meet with the vendor to begin conceptualization and production scheduling and that the produced video will be shared with council when available.
