Pittsburgh City Council
Council pushes for quarterly crime data amid Market Square teen restrictions.
Written by Amy Whipple
Council members want more than stories when it comes to restricting teens from public spaces.
Council voted to move forward with legislation to regularly receive detailed violent crime data, sortable by age and location, at least once per quarter.
The request comes in response to a new policy that prohibits anyone under 18 from being in Market Square from 3 pm until midnight, Thursday to Sunday, unless they are accompanied by someone 21 or older.
Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield, who sponsored the bill, said that, aside from two recent high-profile incidents, she could only find anecdotal evidence of teenagers being disruptive, not violent, downtown. She said this does not match the larger public perception.
“We’re talking a lot about violent crime. We’re talking a lot about kids,” Warwick said at the May 6 committee meeting. “Let’s put some numbers behind the feelings, then we can really understand the situation that we’re dealing with.”
Council Member Deb Gross of Highland Park also wants to include gender and residency (inside or outside the city) and to reflect the perpetrators and victims. The city currently maintains a violent crimes dashboard, but it only represents victims in its demographic data and does not include place of residence.
Council is scheduled to hold a post agenda meeting related to the subject on May 20.
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