Pittsburgh's New Police Chief Embraces Technology To Reverse Murder Rate
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It seems hardly a day goes by without another killing in Pittsburgh.
For the city's new police chief, Cameron McLay, it's a murder rate well above his last post in Madison, Wisconsin.
"The level of violence is significantly higher here," said McLay.
Appearing on the KD/PG Sunday Edition, McLay and Mayor Bill Peduto addressed the crime wave in the city.
The numbers are tragic:
- 59 homicides so far this year compared to 46 in all of 2013.
- 52 of those 59 victims are African Americans.
- 37 of those 59 deaths there have been no arrests.
The mayor says one key to reversing this is better technology.
"Number one is technology. We haven't upgraded, and we are behind other urban police forces in the utilization of technology to be able to break up networks," says the mayor.
McLay agrees.
"By taking the use of technology and really analyzing well what the trends look like and identifying where are those societal vulnerabilities are, and then some of that data will be used to analyze who are those groups in conflict who are helping to drive the violence," he said.
The police chief says he will be hiring an outside consultant with experience in upgrading police technology.
"I'm going to be bringing in an outside consultant who has participated in creating state-of-the-art systems for bureaus," he said.
He will also hire a new chief of staff from outside the bureau who, he says, will be "someone who understands data-driven, community-oriented policing and how to infuse those systems."
"We have some very robust capacities for analyzing crime in the bureau. What we don't yet have is the ability to take data, make it real time, and diffuse it through the organization so my commanders and supervisors use it to deploy resources on a day by day basis."
All this with the goal of reversing that murder rate.
You May Also Be Interested In These Latest News Stories
Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter