PITTSBURGH — A new police data portal available to the public provides an overview of reported criminal activity across the city, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police announced.
The dashboard uses information collected from the police department’s records management system (RMS) and will be manually updated on a monthly basis between the 1st and 5th to reflect the preceding month.
Channel 11 News asked people downtown if they would use it, and the reviews were mixed.
“I would, I would be informed most definitely,” said Darlene Watson when asked if she would use the app.
“I personally don’t really see the validity for myself,” said Marshall Taylor when he was asked.
In Downtown Pittsburgh where there has been an increase in violent crime many residents, we spoke with were torn on whether they would use the new crime portal.
“In one aspect it can make people fearful. The other aspect is it could also be informative,” Taylor said.
They also wanted to know how it would work.
Pittsburgh police explained officers will track the incident which neighborhood, the type of crime, and when it happened. Placing all that data here in the portal.
In a statement on Wednesday Chief Larry Scirotto said it’s an important tool to combat crime: “By making comprehensive crime data publicly available and easily accessible, residents are better informed about their own neighborhoods, the city as a whole, and the work of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. As chief, I am committed to driving accountability through transparency and the Police Data Portal is another building block toward that goal,” said Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto.
The portal will be updated monthly, but in the future, as the bureau transitions to the new RMS, the goal is to establish as close to a real-time data feed as possible, which would allow for more frequent or automatic updates to the information.
“You can alert family members and friends like I heard this is happening over your way be careful,” Watson said.
Residents told Channel 11 spoke with added that what’s more important than tracking the data, is using to prevent future crimes.
“You are telling people someone just got shot over here. How does that fix it,” Taylor explained.
The data portal allows users to filter the information by police zone, neighborhood, crime type and date.
Violent sexual crimes are not included. In addition, no personally identifying information is attached to the incidents, meaning that no specific addresses are made public.
Data included in the portal is gathered from police reports. Police reports are not the same as “call for service” records. While reports may be filed as a result of a call for service, not all calls result in a police report, the bureau said.
More information can be found here.
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