Federal officials and Allegheny County law enforcement are investigating “hateful and threatening messages,” some of which included antisemitic vitriol against Pittsburgh’s mayor, that were broadcast on two days this week over public safety radio.
The comments, made Monday and Tuesday by what the county said was an unauthorized user, were carried over the radio systems that allow the county and Pittsburgh public safety personnel to communicate.
Kasey Reigner, a spokeswoman for Allegheny County’s emergency services, said the system was not hacked.
“The unknown user was able to access the analog radio system and transmit the messages,” Reigner said in a statement.
“We have had unknown subscribers show up on our channels in the past,” Reigner told TribLive by text message without elaborating.
Officials did not provide details Tuesday about the content or duration of the messages, which are also being investigated by Allegheny County Emergency Services and the Federal Communications Commission.
But authorities said the person transmitting the messages was not using a city- or county- registered radio.
Cara Cruz, a Pittsburgh public safety spokeswoman, said the radio traffic affected city public safety channels but declined further comment.
Officials will release information about “the ownership or origin of the offending transmitting device” only when the investigation is completed, she added.
Mayor Corey O’Connor, whose late mother was Jewish, said he attended an event at a local synagogue Monday evening.
“We know there’s been a lot of antisemitic speech. It’s a lot more than in the past,” O’Connor told reporters Tuesday morning outside the City-County Building.
He said he was more concerned about his wife and two young children than about himself after the threatening remarks.
The mayor added he wants people to feel safe and welcome in Pittsburgh and said he had “all the faith” in Pittsburgh’s police force.
“It’s just being as cautious as we can and taking every threat seriously,” the mayor said.
The county learned of Monday’s broadcast around 2 p.m. that day. A second round of threatening messages was transmitted Tuesday morning around 10 a.m., county officials said. The messages occurred on the same radio channel that was impacted Monday.
The messages affected only one channel in the countywide system, officials said. Public safety officials who typically use that channel temporarily moved to a secure channel, county officials said.
The FCC did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment. An FBI spokesman said agents in the Pittsburgh office were aware of the incident but not involved in the investigation.
High alert
The incident left some City Council members feeling unsettled.
“This is obviously incredibly upsetting and concerning,” Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, told TribLive Tuesday. “I think it’s just yet another incident that we’ve seen in this spike of global antisemitism.”
She pointed out that Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, was the victim of an arson attack during Passover last year that set his official residence ablaze while he and his family were sleeping inside the home.
“As always, with any kind of incident like this in the city of Pittsburgh, our public safety teams, our bureau of police are always on high alert,” said Warwick, whose district includes part of Squirrel Hill, home to a large segment of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
Within the last couple of years, a slew of antisemitic messaging has cropped up throughout the city, including on flyers thrown in a largely Jewish community, stickers plastered throughout Squirrel Hill and graffiti scrawled on Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh buildings.
City Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, said his office has received threatening, though not necessarily antisemitic, messages — including some directed at himself, the mayor and city staffers. The threatening calls, he said, have been “ongoing for over a year.”
Coghill said he does not believe they’re linked to the messages broadcast across public safety channels Monday, but he said police are investigating those messages, too.
“We take all threats very seriously,” he said. “I’m sure they will be taking the one the mayor got yesterday very seriously.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is not commenting on the incident, said Shawn Brokos, the nonprofit group’s director of community security.
“We have full faith and confidence in our law enforcement partners to investigate this fully,” Brokos told TribLive.