Pittsburgh police now required to publish incident data with race, gender breakdowns

Pittsburgh police will be required to publish data about certain incidents with breakdowns by demographics like race and gender.

City Council on Tuesday approved legislation that requires city police to collect data including information on pedestrian stops; use of force and physical restraints; citations and warnings issued; misdemeanor and felony arrests; and reasons for traffic stops.

That data will be publicly available and disaggregated, meaning it would be broken down to show data specifically relating to certain demographics, including race and gender.

The legislation calls for the data to be provided in plain language and to be easy to search.

The Pittsburgh Community Task Force for Police Reform recommended the measure last October.

“I think this is one further step we’re taking on public safety reforms,” said Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, a co-sponsor on the bill.

This information will help officials identify potential racial profiling — and help determine how best to fix such systemic problems, she said.

Councilwoman Deb Gross said it’s also important that the data provides other demographics, like gender, too.

The Department of Public Safety is “fully supportive” of the measure, department spokeswoman Cara Cruz said last week.

They will be investing in new technology to help with collecting, disaggregating and publishing the data, she said. She did not offer details regarding how much that investment in new technology might cost.