Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey unveils plan to combat city violence

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey on Friday unveiled a plan that aims to reduce violence across the city.

“It is time to address the violence as a public health crisis that is treatable and preventable,” Gainey said during a news conference at a community garden in Beltzhoover.

High-profile violent incidents so far this year have been spread across the city. Among them, an 18-month-old infant was shot and killed less than a week ago in a drive-by shooting in Downtown Pittsburgh and two 17-year-olds were shot and killed and 13 other people injured in an April shooting at an Airbnb party on the North Side.

Among new initiatives outlined in Gainey’s “Plan for Peace,” the city would create a Stop the Violence Community Grant Program to offer grants to community organizations focused on violence prevention.

The plan said the city also should pair traditional policing with a code-enforcement approach to clean up neighborhoods, including removing trash, weeds and abandoned vehicles and repairing lighting, sidewalks and more. Another proposal recommends working to prevent the spread of disease and addiction by offering safe injection supplies, fentanyl test kits and treatment options for drug users.

Gainey stressed that police will continue to act as law enforcers.

“A public health approach to eliminate violence does not replace nor is it in conflict with law enforcement,” he said. “Creating safety for all requires a range of strategies, including the presence of people trained to confront life-threatening violence.”

Part of that includes redoubling existing law-enforcement efforts, including group-violence intervention and focused deterrence. Those ideas focus on relatively small groups within the community that officials say are driving a majority of the violence.

“In our city, there are about 200 people in groups of eight to 10 in a couple dozen locations that are causing the violent crimes we are experiencing,” he said.

In addition to law enforcement, that approach includes community and faith leaders and sometimes family members. It concentrates policing and community outreach efforts on groups and individuals who are most at risk of committing violence, being a victim of violence or both.

The idea is not a new one. It was an approach pushed by former Chief Cameron McLay, who left the city in 2016, and picked up by Chief Scott Schubert as well. After a large drop in violent crime in 2017 and early 2018, officials attributed the drop in part to the focused deterrence approach.

The city also will work to provide incentives for officers to engage in more community policing, including “rewarding community relationships in consideration for assignments and promotion.”

An outside consulting firm has been brought in to assess the Public Safety Department’s current staffing levels to determine whether the police bureau has “the right officers in the right places and how many we need,” said Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt.

“We’re willing to listen and figure that out with a focus on using the (Crisis Response Intervention Teams) and focusing on what we want the police to focus on, which is crime,” Schmidt said.

There also are plans to expand those crisis response teams, which pair a police officer with a social worker to help provide the appropriate care and direction to the people they encounter in 911 responses.

“It’s ramping up as we speak,” said Lisa Frank, the chief operating and administrative officer for the city. “It takes a while to get there.”

Gainey also stressed that his plan “will not produce results overnight.”