Pittsburgh Bureau of Police launch "Pittsburgh Police Cares" as new community outreach program
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Pittsburgh police want you to get to know them, specifically the officers who work in your neighborhood.
The bureau just created a new tool, so you can connect directly with your local officers and learn about crime and more where you live. It's as simple as checking out a website on your phone or computer.
Chief Larry Scirotto said for years a handful of officers had the responsibility for community policing for the entire city.
"It's about problem-solving, connectivity together," Scirotto said. "In this, we believe that that creates a real opportunity for us to engage in a way that we haven't in a long time."
Now that's changing.
The bureau is launching a new initiative called Pittsburgh Police Cares, an online resource you can visit to find out what's happening in your community. Officers will be handing out door hangers to residents that display QR codes directing to the bureau's website and a page for each zone.
There, they'll be able to see updated crime statistics and learn about neighborhood alerts, events, and groups. You can also get contact info for your local officers.
"This is a way for us to verify, validate, and issue account for that issue, and then address it with the community member and/or community group," Scirotto said.
The program started in Zone 1 under Commander Shawn Malloy, who's playing a lead role in expanding it citywide.
"The idea is just to get out there and meet people, right? It's a simple word of just saying, 'Hello,' you know, that starts the whole engagement, that starts building that trust," Malloy said.
It's trust between both community members and police, in hopes of empowering folks to speak up and come forward.
"It's everybody's responsibility to be human, to be a partner to engage a new person per someone, someone new every day that you would not have otherwise met," Scirotto said. "If we are successful, I think we then can change the way in which community police partnerships look nationally, or others will want to emulate and mirror what we're doing here."
The chief said they're going to send out surveys at the end of the year, early next year to get feedback on the program.
