Local organizations, Pittsburgh police looking to prevent violence after school

PITTSBURGH — Many parents in Pittsburgh are worried about the incidents involving kids that keep happening after school including fights and other violence.

“Between 2:30 and 4 p.m., you have a lot of incidents happening with youth in the neighborhoods and communities,” said Roy Blankenship, the community organizer with BPEP.

It’s around the same time city officers are changing shifts so the community organizer for the Black Political Empowerment Project brought this up in Thursday night’s community meeting with the Pittsburgh police chief.

“It was a question that came up about police sort of changing their shifts in order to help with the youth getting out of school. Usually, the shift change is around 3/4 p.m.,” said Blankenship.

Right now, Pittsburgh Police said officers do provide support and presence around dismissal time at many city schools, but some officers have to leave before others arrive during shift change.

However, in 2024, police said the shift changes will be later in the day and long after school lets out, meaning that dismissal will be staffed with officers as needed and without interruption.

“It would definitely be nice to have a police presence,” said Brittany Bryan. “Why shouldn’t there be somebody up there as kids are coming home.”

In the meantime, places like Abiding Mission have after-school programs for elementary kids so they have somewhere safe to go after school. They also hire teenagers to work in their programs.

“We are hoping we are reaching the kids young enough that we are impacting them years into the future and we will see the rewards,” said Jordan Shoenberger, the executive director of Abiding Mission.

Police said contractually, the police chief cannot make the shift changes until next year.

Until then, Blankenship wants parents and community members to be more involved in watching out for kids after school.

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