Former Pittsburgh police commander accused in federal lawsuit of secretly recording officers

A former Pittsburgh police commander violated police policy, state and federal wiretapping laws, and two constitutional amendments when he stashed body-worn cameras in patrol cars last fall to secretly record more than a half-dozen of his own officers, a lawsuit filed this week alleges.

Matthew Lackner, 50, a Mt. Lebanon resident who led Pittsburgh police’s Zone 2 from 2021 to 2023, hid officers’ body-worn cameras in police vehicles to record some 75 hours of conversations among at least seven Pittsburgh police officers from Sept. 27 to Oct. 4, according to the lawsuit.

In one recording, Lackner sat in his office and placed a small, yellow Post-It note over his own body-worn camera, hiding it underneath his dark-blue police uniform shirt, as he taped a conversation with a lieutenant, the complaint said.

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.

Pittsburgh police placed Lackner on paid administrative on Oct. 16, pending the completion of an internal investigation. He ended his 29-year tenure with Pittsburgh police when he retired two days later.

Allegheny County Police launched a criminal investigation in October. They charged Lackner in February with four counts of illegal use of wired or oral communications in the wiretapping case.

Lackner waived a preliminary hearing earlier this month. He’s set to appear in Common Pleas court April 29.

“Anyone that betrays the trust of our organization is dealt with immediately,” Pittsburgh police Chief Larry Scirotto said at the time of Lackner’s arrest.

Scirotto declined to comment to TribLive on Friday.

Robert Swartzwelder, president of police union Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1, said he had concerns about the bureau mechanisms that should have caught what Lackner did.

Any time an officer logs into the Axon computer system to view body-worn camera coverage, a log and “audit” are created, the union president told TribLive.

“I find it appalling that he would be able to record 75 hours of surreptitious audio and video that he wasn’t audited for,” Swartzwelder told TribLive on Friday. “There’s a dramatic audit trail that’s created when you log in.”

“Nobody caught it,” he added. “Nobody was watching the watcher.”

The new lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, identifies seven Pittsburgh police officers as “aggrieved persons” under the Federal Wiretap Act.

Lackner’s actions violated each officer’s Fourth and 14th Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit said. The Fourth Amendment assures an American’s right to privacy. The 14th Amendment addresses a citizen’s right to due process in law.

Lackner also violated the state Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, the lawsuit alleges. Under that law alone, each officer is eligible for $1,000 — or $100 for each day the law was violated.

A jury in the case could determine additional financial damages.

Lackner, in the meantime, will be able to keep collecting his pension — nearly $6,500 a month — unless he’s convicted on these or other 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 retired commander’s reason for taping his officers 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 either the criminal or civil court records.

At least one Pittsburgh police officer, mid-recording, spotted a body-worn camera Lackner had planted and confronted him about it, the complaint said. The commander said that “a particular plainclothes detective,” who court documents don’t name, was working under a confidential federal investigation.

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 have all told police that none of them gave Lackner permission to record his officers.

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.