Pittsburgh City Council plans program aimed at reducing gun violence

Pittsburgh would pump more money into a police anti-violence unit under legislation City Council proposed Tuesday.

Under the bill introduced by Councilmen Ricky Burgess of North Point Breeze and R. Daniel Lavelle of the Hill District, Pittsburgh would boost the police bureau Group Violence Intervention Unit’s budget by $350,000 per year for the next five years. Now budgeted at $150,000 yearly, the unit would receive $500,000 per year under the bill.

It would also create a new Stop the Violence Initiative that would include a steering committee of representatives from the Mayor’s Office, City Council and the Allegheny County Health Department. The group would meet monthly to oversee violence reduction efforts.

A second committee consisting of organizations that provide violence prevention programs in the city would meet quarterly to share information and devise strategies and solutions for reducing gun violence.

“From the day I took office in 2008 to the end of last year, 604 of our loved ones were murdered in this city,” Burgess said. “Over 80 percent of them were murdered with guns and more than 75 percent of them were African Americans. In order to reduce gun violence, I believe we must do it comprehensively. We must invest in prevention programs to stop killings from happening (and) we must also make it more difficult to gain access to guns and ammunitions.”

Mayor Bill Peduto this month wrote letters to dozens of mayors across the country — many in cities where mass shootings have occurred — urging them to support legislation limiting access to guns and ammunition.

Peduto on Friday — the sixth anniversary of a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. — plans to propose a city ordinance banning “assault weapons, certain firearm accessories and ammunition, and remove firearms from the hands of those that are proven in a court of law to be an extreme risk,” according to the letter.

Burgess said council members support the initiative.

Gun violence has decreased by more than 40 percent since the Group Intervention Unit began operations in 2015, according to a city police official.

Pittsburgh police investigated 191 non-fatal gun incidents in 2016, said Lt. Lori McCartney of the major crimes unit. That dropped to 142 in 2017. So far this year, police have investigated 109, she said.

The unit concentrates policing and community outreach efforts, including social services, on groups and individuals who are most at risk of committing violence, being a victim of violence or both.

Cornell Jones, who has a contract with the city to serve as group violence intervention coordinator, said the additional funds would permit the hiring of more intervention specialists and an expansion of the program into neighborhoods that aren’t currently served.

“When the community members come together with law enforcement and social services there’s a transformation that happens,” Jones said. “We’re excited to take it to another level.”

Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bob at 412-765-2312, bbauder@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobbauder.