City officials, police praise drop in gun violence, other crimes
Pittsburgh city and police officials lauded year-over-year drops in gun violence and other crimes Tuesday, crediting the declines to police efforts.
Shootings in the city dropped to a 12-year low in 2017, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported last week, with 147 fatal and nonfatal shootings in 2017 compared with 180 in 2016. Those numbers exclude accidental and self-inflicted shootings.
The city also saw varying declines in the number of murders, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, vehicle thefts and arson in 2017 compared with 2016, according to police.
The number of rapes rose 5 percent from 94 to 99 in 2017, according to police.
Reported robberies saw the most significant decrease, dropping 20 percent from 1,007 in 2016 to 804 in 2017. Police recorded 59 murders in 2016 and 58 in 2017, a 2 percent decline.
Police Chief Scott Schubert said the reduced crime is the result of hard work by many throughout the bureau, including officers on the street, detectives and the bureau’s specialty units. It’s gratifying to see the work reflected in statistics, he said.
“There’s more to do,” he said. “And we are committed to doing that. I just can’t wait to see how this goes as we progress down this path to what I think is going to be unbelievable for the city of Pittsburgh.”
Chief Schubert and Mayor
Bill Peduto credited the bureau’s recently revived Group Violence Intervention strategy for the reduction in nonfatal shootings, which aims to reduce gangrelated gun violence.
Police identify the most at-risk group members in the city and deliver a message: Either stop shooting and get help starting a new life — what police call an “honorable exit” from violence — or face the full force of law enforcement.
Authorities then follow through on that promise, providing social services to those who give up violence and carrying out focused “enforcement actions” against the individuals and groups who continue to shoot.
“By the time we get to that level, it’s a last resort,” Sgt. Jim Glick said Tuesday.
In the past year, police carried out four such enforcement actions, Sgt. Glick said. The efforts targeted 56 at-risk individuals and resulted in 36 arrests, he said.
Officials believe targeting the small core of people who cause much of the city’s violence is more effective than broadly targeting violenceprone neighborhoods.
The decline in shootings is a tangible sign that the strategy is working, Mr. Peduto said.
“Instead of having patrols that saturate a neighborhood, where the neighborhood already feels victimized and then feels victimized twice, we look for the individual person, and we reach out and give them an opportunity to change their lives.”