Former Pittsburgh police commander charged with spying on officers, recording conversations

A former Pittsburgh police zone commander is charged with spying multiple times on several of his officers, secretly recording up to 75 hours of their conversations.

Matthew Lackner, 50, of Mt. Lebanon, was charged Friday by Allegheny County Police with four counts of illegal use of wired or oral communications, court records show.

Pittsburgh police placed Lackner on paid administrative on Oct. 16, pending the completion of an internal investigation.

Lackner was a 29-year bureau veteran promoted to Zone 2 commander in October 2021. He retired Oct. 18.

“Anyone that betrays the trust of our organization is dealt with immediately,” Pittsburgh police Chief Larry Scirotto said Friday, when asked about Lackner.

County police launched its criminal investigation into the allegations against the Pittsburgh police veteran in October. County police did not comment Friday on the charges.

Robert Swartzwelder, president of police union Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1, declined Friday to comment on the charges.

Lackner, in the meantime, will be able to keep collecting his pension — nearly $6,500 a month — unless he’s convicted on criminal charges.

The board of managers of Pittsburgh Policemen’s Relief and Pension Fund voted unanimously Nov. 9 to pay Lackner an annual pension of nearly $78,000.

The pension fund had not been notified Friday of the charges against Lackner, said Ed Trapp, the president of the fund’s board.

“We presume he’s innocent,” Trapp said. “If the charges fall in the enumerated offenses and he’s convicted, then we could take action — but not until then.”

Investigators contend that Lackner used at least 11 body-worn cameras issued by the police bureau to record his officers multiple times between Sept. 27 and Oct. 4. In total, he captured about 75 hours of recordings, according to a criminal complaint in the case.

His intent remains unclear.

Pennsylvania is a two-party consent state, which means all parties involved in a conversation must consent before a conversation can be recorded. Police officers and other law enforcement officials also cannot conduct or monitor these types of recordings without “Class A” certification, which Lackner did not have.

Lackner’s attorney was not listed Friday in the court record.

In one of his recordings, Lackner talked with a lieutenant in his office, the complaint said. Before the lieutenant arrived, Lackner placed a small, yellow Post-It note over his body-worn camera, then appeared to hide it underneath his dark-blue police uniform shirt.

Lackner was seen in later footage placing a body-worn camera in a black SUV, in which three of Zone 2’s five plainclothes detectives traveled. Those detectives were recorded without their knowledge or consent.

After officers spotted one of the cameras mid-recording and confronted Lackner, the commander said that “a particular plainclothes detective,” who the complaint does not name, was working under a confidential federal investigation, the complaint said.

Lackner later told two detectives that he, too, was part of the federal investigation into a Zone 2 detective, the complaint said. He said there were “search warrants,” but stressed he couldn’t comment further.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, the state Attorney General’s Office, and the Western District of Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney’s Office all told police that none of them had given Lackner permission to record his officers.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also confirmed there had no federal investigations involving Zone 2 police.

Zone 2 includes Downtown, the Strip District and part of the Hill District. Cmdr. Tim Novosel officially took over the leadership role in Zone 2 on Feb. 9.

The salary for commanders in 2022 was more than $121,000, up from nearly $109,000 a year earlier, records show. By comparison, the starting salary in 2023 for a first-year Pittsburgh police officer was $25.69 an hour, or about $53,000 a year.