Pittsburgh Police Are No Longer Responding To "Non-Emergency" Calls; Report
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
WPXI Channel 11 out of Pittsburgh reports that police will no longer be responding to calls that are not deemed to be “in-progress emergencies,” meaning theft, harassment, criminal mischief, and burglary alarms will essentially be ignored.
Pittsburgh in about 5 hours pic.twitter.com/FrgeS1K0cF
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 11, 2024
Such calls will Instead be redirected to an answer machine, according to the report which also notes that from 3 am to 7 am, the city’s six police stations will operate without desk officers present.
Only around 20 officers will be available for overnight shifts to cover the entire city, the report further notes, stating that the decision has been taken due to “understaffing.”
Fallout from a 'defund the police' mentality - Pittsburgh cops will no longer respond to calls that are not deemed to be “in-progress emergencies,” meaning theft, harassment, criminal mischief, and burglary alarms will essentially be ignored. Report here https://t.co/iK4lgQGN9Q pic.twitter.com/lPRdAuWjYK
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) March 11, 2024
Responding to the development, Councilman Anthony Coghill told Channel 11 “When it comes to harassment and things of this nature, you better have a police officer there. That’s what the public expects. That’s what I expect out of our city.”
Police Chief Larry Scirotto has said that he wants to cut the call volume from approximately 200,000 calls per year down to about 50,000 and that the changes are neccessary.
Pittsburgh has essentially been a victim of a defund the police mentality, with the municipal city council having last year approved the a budget that called for a reduction in police staffing.
Police enforcement is at an all-time low, according to city reports, with arrests in the city having dropped from over 18,000 in 2013 to 6,710 in 2022. Traffic stops also dropped from close to 29,000 in 2013 to a record-low 6,883 in 2022. Meanwhile, violent crime has risen since 2019.
Pittsburgh City Councilman Ricky Burgess sponsored a bill that banned the city’s police officers from making “traffic stops for minor offenses.” According to reports “the controversial legislation was created to make traffic stops more ‘equitable and fair.’”
In 2020, the council also passed five reform bills that effectively hampered police from doing their jobs.
How is defunding the police working out for Pittsburgh?
— PitunisWorld 🌎 (@ScMesab) February 27, 2024
Remember the bill they passed I believe in 2020?!
Great job! 22 officers for over 300k people. That’s going to work out great!
Elections have consequences.
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh City Council passed five bills aimed… https://t.co/6ksaWRyL0G
Data has shown that the ‘Defund the Police’ movement fueled more crime, particularly in mid-sized cities.
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