Shirts sold in support of Officer Christine Luffey
PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh’s “dog cop” has sued the city, claiming a longstanding practice of discrimination against female officers forced her into early retirement.
Christine Luffey sued the City in federal court on Nov. 12, claiming one female in power was so swept up by PPD’s “masculine culture” that she was openly hostile to other women.
Luffey has her own support group on Facebook that celebrates her commitment to helping abandoned or abused animals. Her Biscuits Bingo event that started in the 1990s has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for animal shelters, earning her the nickname “the dog cop.”
But her specialization with animal-cruelty cases didn’t win over superiors in Zone 3 like Commander Jeffery Abraham and Lt. Sandra McGuigan, the suit says. In October 2023, they emailed with complaints that Luffey had failed to intervene in a large fight among juveniles because she was taking pictures or video with her phone.
Luffey responded that she and her partner had only arrived during the aftermath of the fight and she was taking pictures for identification purposes because her body camera had malfunctioned.
Still, Luffey said she was punished. She would need permission to respond to any animal-related calls in the future and would need to prepare an agenda of her work activities in a week that would also need approval, she said.
“As these events were unfolding, Plaintiff heard from her colleagues that Abraham and McGuigan had referred to Plaintiff as ‘useless,’ serving ‘no purpose,’ and ‘a waste of a body,’” the suit claims.
Luffey’s patrol vehicle was taken from her while male officers kept theirs, she claims. Other stipulations about her work led her to file a formal complaint in December 2023 alleging a hostile work environment.
The investigation resulted in no punishment for Abraham or McGuigan, and in February 2024 the public safety director told her she should retire, the suit says. Ultimately, she went on the Chief’s List, which lets officers use their accumulated paid-time-off hours to get to their retirement date.
“In short, the City knew about the unlawful conditions that McGuigan and/or Abraham had created, did not fix them and instead encouraged Luffey to retire,” the suit says.
The complaint notes that less than 15% of the force is female, though in 1990 it was nearly twice that because of a federal court ruling from 1975 that required more equality.
“Unsurprisingly, female police officers who don’t conform to masculine expectations are vulnerable to sex-based discrimination by men and women up the chain of command,” the suit says.
“Female-on-female discrimination can occur where women in command positions feel pressure to prove their loyalty to the dominant male culture, or pressure to distance themselves from gender stereotypes about ‘weakness.’”
Charles Lamberton represents Luffey.
