Pittsburgh crime rate dips 5.3% in 2019
Homicides plummet, violent crime steady
Crime overall dropped last year in Pittsburgh, with total shootings in the city continuing their steady downward trend, but the number of nonfatal shootings, outbreaks of violence Downtown and cases of ethnic intimidation all rose.
Violent crime in the city inched lower in 2019 from a year earlier amid a sharp decline in homicides, according to statistics released Thursday by city police.
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette previously reported, there were 37 homicides last year, down from 58 in 2018, a 36% plunge.
Total shootings slid to 146 in 2019 from 163 the year before, and that number has tracked downward each year since 2016, when there were 235. While homicides dropped, the portion of total shootings that were not fatal, however, rose nearly 4% to 109 in 2019 from 105 the year before. And violent crime remained essentially steady, ticking downward by 0.8%.
Zone 5, which covers neighborhoods on the east side of the city, remained the most dangerous of the city’s six precincts in terms of homicides, continuing a yearslong trend. More than one-third of the killings in Pittsburgh in 2019 occurred in Zone 5.
A combination of factors, including “excellent police work,” community outreach and the city’s medical infrastructure, drew credit from police Chief Scott Schubert for the drop in homicides and declines in other crime categories.
“But while these numbers are encouraging, at the end of the day, even one homicide is too many, one person being shot is too many,” Chief Schubert said in a statement, sounding a familiar refrain. “So we’ll keep working. We won’t be happy until the numbers are even lower.”
Pittsburgh’s overall crime rate, police said, fell 5.3% in 2019 compared with statistics from a year earlier.
Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich praised technology for giving Pittsburgh’s crime fighters a leg up. The city’s ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system covers 18 square miles of Pittsburgh — around one-third of the city — and uses powerful microphones to detect and locate gunshots. City streets are monitored by a robust network of cameras.
“As a result of the ShotSpotter system and city-installed security cameras, police are responding immediately to gunfire and locating victims,” Mr. Hissrich said. “By responding faster than ever before, officers are able to render aid to victims who otherwise might die.”
Police noted that some encouraging data in crime statistics were tempered last year by a jump in violent crime Downtown — even as overall Downtown crime rates dropped — as well as a rise in cases
involving ethnic intimidation.
Last year, there were 136 cases of violent crime Downtown, up 14% from the 119 reported in 2018.
Violent crime Downtown became a flashpoint last year, with Mayor Bill Peduto clashing with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust over ways to address concerns about what the trust called “a declining level of public safety” in the Cultural District.
There were four Downtown stabbings in August and complaints by the trust and neighborhood business owners about what they perceived as an increase in homeless people, aggressive panhandling, disorderly youth and a variety of other nuisances.
The city responded by sending more police officers.
“We are concerned that violence went up [in Downtown]. I mean, you all remember we had a police officer who was checking on somebody at the bus shelter when a person came up and attacked that female. So we’re there,” Chief Schubert said Thursday afternoon during a news conference.
“Obviously, we want to make sure we’re visible,” the chief continued. “We want to make sure that not just the officers working down there, but that our motorcycles, our horses, our canines [are] more visible.”
Mr. Peduto noted in the city’s news release that he has steered the police bureau to its largest complement of officers in a generation. There are close to 1,000 city police officers, including those in the academy, according to Chief Schubert.
In an annual budget address in November, the mayor detailed plans to spend millions of dollars on public safety, including expenditures on body cameras, Tasers, hybrid vehicles and facility upgrades. Part of the mayor’s proposed budget included a plan to add new substations in Homewood and the South Side. And the city said Thursday it intends to staff the Downtown substation around the clock. Chief Schubert said those plans include having a full-time sergeant there.
Citywide, there were 22 ethnic intimidation incidents last year, of which 11 involved violence, up 29% from 17 cases in 2018, of which six were violent. Those numbers reflect national trends, police said.
The city reported that socalled Part I crimes fell nearly 12% in 2019 from the year before.
Part I crimes are broken down into two main categories: violent and property crimes. The former includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Property crimes — burglary, theft, vehicle theft and arson — dropped nearly 14%, the city reported.
And while violent crime showed only an incremental decrease, police said that the number of violent crimes in 2019 — 1,569 — represented almost a 19% drop when compared with a five-year average of 1,932 violent crimes per year.
Police officials claimed success in their efforts to deter violence by focusing on small groups of the most violent people in the city. The strategy is termed Group Violence Intervention, or GVI.
“Through GVI, investigators and citizen outreach workers identify individuals who are most likely to commit a violent crime or become a victim of a violent crime and hold custom notifications aimed at helping them escape a dangerous lifestyle,” according to police.
Police also credited the public with the drop in crime, lauding people for coming forward with tips. Also aiding crime-fighting efforts: outreach by police officers to kids, creating relationships and positive influences.
Part II crimes — including simple assault, fraud, vandalism and certain sex offenses — dropped by 0.8% in 2019 compared with 2018.
Police did not break out statistics for the individual categories of Part I and Part II crimes. A more detailed look at Pittsburgh crime statistics is expected later in the year when the police bureau produces its annual report.
Violent crime Downtown became a flashpoint last year, with Mayor Bill Peduto clashing with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust over ways to address concerns about what the trust called “a declining level of public safety” in the Cultural District.