Cameras, more police patrols deter South Side crime

Credit the new security cameras. Or the stepped-up police patrols on weekends. Or a general sense that it’s tougher to get away with anything in the nightlife-rich South Side.

Whatever the reasons, crime plunged more than 30 percent since early 2017 in the nuisance-prone area along East Carson Street, statistics from Pittsburgh and Allegheny County show.

“The philosophy is, if you come down here looking for trouble, you’re going to find it. And it’s going to be with Pittsburgh police,” county District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said.

Since September, his office led the installation of three dozen cameras along East Carson between 10th and 19th streets, part of a growing network that positions 450 cameras across 75 locations countywide. Mr. Zappala attributed much of the dip in South Side crime to those devices, which can act as a deterrent, collect evidence and assist prosecution, he said.

Businesses in the area may access the cameras, letting them check around their establishments for suspicious activity, Mr. Zappala said. Crime in the area fell 37 percent from the first three months of 2017 to the same period this year, he said at a community meeting last week.

City figures put the decline at 31 percent, but it wasn’t immediately clear what accounted for the discrepancy.

Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburgh public safety director, pinned the reduction — over 30 percent by either count — on robust police work along with the city security cameras and those owned by Mr. Zappala’s office.

“Word gets out that we’re not going to tolerate any problems,” Mr.

Hissrich said. A stronger police presence probably made the biggest difference in undermining trouble, he said.

For more than two years, police have run South Side “saturation patrols.” The practice puts as many as two dozen police officers in the area on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, largely to prevent violations that can include disorderly conduct, public urination and assault.

Other city-led provisions — such as a designated vehicle lane for emergency responses on East Carson — took shape early in 2017. Also in the area, the city plans to install ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system, and to increase its own battery of security cameras from 13 to 18.

Those electronic eyes are separate from the independent setup under Mr. Zappala, who relies in part on grants and forfeited drug money for his system. He said he isn’t placing his network where the city has already positioned cameras. And he isn’t coordinating camera plans with the city, which has not shared that information despite his requesting details, he said.

“It’s just [that] I don’t know what they’re doing. I’m not waiting around for them to tell me,” Mr. Zappala said.

The district attorney has not requested any coordination, Mr. Hissrich said.

According to the DA’s office, Mr. Hissrich attended a meeting in August that addressed, in part, the compatibility of city cameras with systems such as the district attorney’s.

Mr. Zappala’s office did not release any plans for South Side cameras at the August meeting, although the city detailed its own system in that area, Mr. Hissrich countered through a spokesman.

Regardless, neighborhood advocates cited a safer vibe in the South Side. It has recently seen perhaps 450 incidents over three months, a relatively modest figure under the circumstances, Mr. Zappala said. Up to 20,000 people pour into the stretch between Smithfield Street and the SouthSide Works complex on weekend nights, city estimates show.

Business owner Ryan Smith said “the threat” imposed by cameras “maybe makes it less desirable” for people to show up intending trouble. His dinner traffic at Benny Fierro’s, a pizza shop near 19th and East Carson streets, has picked up dramatically, he said.

“That, to me, is a sign of people from other neighborhoods coming out to really visit the businesses in the South Side that are good, that are doing something cool,” Mr. Smith said.

At the South Side Community Council, President Barbara Rudiak voiced gratitude.

But “we also have to do more as a community, with the support of city and state officials, to work on a positive image of South Side,” Ms. Rudiak said. “It has to be the reality, not just a perception, that it’s safe. We really have to come together and develop strategy so it’s a place that people will want to come and not only visit, but also to live.”