PITTSBURGH — Stern reaction after an 11 Investigates exclusive on downtown crime stats.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle broke the story earlier this week that data from last year reveals that downtown Pittsburgh is still a top spot for police calls and arrests.
Mayoral challenger Corey O’Connor and District Attorney Stephen Zappala weighed in on our report.
Both of them had strong words for Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration.
Zappala accused the city of under reporting crime. And O’Connor claimed the Mayor is manipulating data to deceive the public.
“We are understaffed, underfunded and overworked. Firefighters, EMS and police officers are being pushed to the limit while this administration wasted critical funding from COVID relief money on hiring political allies instead of investing in our safety,” said O’Connor during a news conference where he outlined his plan for improving public safety.
O’Connor was joined by the president of the Pittsburgh Paramedics Union, Jon Atkinson, and retired Pittsburgh Police officer Sheldon Williams. Both men have endorsed O’Connor.
Williams had supported Gainey in his first run, but said Gainey has failed when it comes to public safety. He said Gainey has essentially defunded police without saying he’s defunded them.
When Gainey took office there were approximately 900 police officers. Today, because of resignations and retirements, there are approximately 750.
While the COVID pandemic and the death of George Floyd led to a delay in academy classes, Gainey did not start a police academy class until his second year in office, even though there was money in the budget from his predecessor for two classes in his first year.
Williams said he believes O’Connor is the right man for the job.
O’Connor said he suspects the mayor’s office is manipulating crime data to their advantage.
“The mayor’s office cherry picks crime stats to paint a false picture of safety, but Pittsburghers know the reality,” said O’Connor.
O’Connor’s comments come just days after 11 Investigates obtained new crime stats revealing that Zone 2, which covers downtown had the most calls for police service, 31,000, and half of those calls came from the downtown district.
Zone 2 also had the most arrest, 1900, in the city.
More than half of them were made in the downtown district
Most of those arrest were for drugs and disorderly conduct.
Earle questioned the mayor about these newly obtained stats.
Earle: Does it indicate it’s a hotbed for crime?
Mayor Gainey: No, no, it doesn’t mean it’s a hotbed for crime. Downtown is safe.
Gainey said people have returned to restaurants and shows and that proves downtown is safe.
But the DA said he’s not convinced.
“I do, I see a lot of problems with downtown,” said Zappala, after a news conference on an unrelated subject.
Zappala said he’s so concerned that he’s now assigned detectives from his office to monitor Market Square for illegal drugs, fights and other criminal activity.
He said he suspects the city is underreporting crime because they don’t have enough officers on the streets.
“If you don’t have the guys on the street and you’re not taking the reports, you’re not going to have the numbers,” said Zappala.
While the mayor has touted a drop in the murder rate and non-fatal shootings, O’Connor said that doesn’t tell the whole story.
He claimed that in one year, burglaries in Lawrenceville doubled, car thefts tripled, and vandalism jumped by 50%.
O’Connor said his top priority, if elected, will be to hire a police chief.
He also said he would expand the co-response program that relies on social workers to assist police, increase staffing and funding for emergency response, and promote transparency in public safety reporting.
He also said he would scale back the telephone reporting unit because “residents want to see a police officer.”
He took a shot at the mayor who has gone through five chiefs in three years, including one who left 17 months into the job to return to officiating college basketball.
“Our city needs stabile dedicated leadership, not revolving door appointments or part-time commitments,” said O’Connor, referring to Chief Larry Scirotto, who attempted to orchestrate a deal with the mayor where he would officiate college basketball for nearly four months.
That deal fell through and Scirotto decided to retire after 11 Investigates broke that story last fall.
In a statement to 11 Investigates, Mayor Gainey denied O’Connor’s allegations. Below is the mayor’s full statement.
“This is a desperate attempt to distract from the real progress we’ve made on public safety during my first term. Every day, I’m in communities across the city hearing from people how their family is safer, gun violence and homicides are down, and that they now know and trust the officers in their neighborhoods. I’m proud that my administration has reduced homicides by 33% and non-fatal gun violence incidents by 44% by addressing the root causes of crime and building back trust between police and communities. In my next term, we’re going to continue to invest in police to focus on violent crime and issues that only uniformed officers can handle, while allowing social workers and unarmed personnel to handle the rest; recruit more Black residents into the city’s Public Safety department, so our public agencies look like the people they represent; and put community responders in place to assist frequent users of emergency services and prevent tragedy before it happens,” said Gainey.
Gainey’s campaign also said mayor reopened the police academy and is running multiple classes per year to hire more police officers after the academy was shut down prior to Gainey’s election.
The campaign also said the mayor’s office is working the fleet back to full strength after it went through years of underfunding, “something Corey should know full well over the years he was on Council.”
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