Police Hear South Side, Mt. Washington Neighbors' Crime Complaints

Pittsburgh's Zone 3 Station Moving To Allentown

POSTED: 12:22 pm EDT August 12, 2008
UPDATED: 6:57 pm EDT August 12, 2008

PITTSBURGH -- Neighbors in Pittsburgh's Zone 3 are airing their concerns about crime in the hilltop communities and talking about the relocation of their police station from the South Side to Allentown.

Several dozen people spoke Tuesday during a public hearing at the downtown City Council chambers.
Video: Watch Sheldon Ingram's Report From The South Side

"All the drug dealers in the city are coming up to Mount Washington because they say it's a good place to use because there are no cops to watch what's going on. I have four dealers on my street daily," said Gloria Ostermeyer, of Mount Washington.

"When you have the staff level as low as it is in Zone 3, how should someone feel safe enough to report anything?" said Gene Beckom, of Beltzhoover.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl supports moving the police station to Warrington Avenue as a way to improve response in hilltop communities like Allentown, St. Clair Village, Allentown, Arlington, Knoxville, Beltzhoover, Mount Washington and Carrick, where a number of shootings have taken place recently.

That idea leaves neighbors down in the South Side Flats wondering what will happen when they lose the police station, which is currently located on Mary Street.

"There are problems with response time taking two hours," said Wanda Jankoski, of the South Side. "Specifically, there were two incidents. There was an incident at the Angel's Club when it took them two hours to get there."

The South Side has long been a popular social spot, and the normal crowds swell even larger on Friday and Saturday nights.

Susan McCoy, president of the South Side Community Council, was able to rattle off a series of late-night shootings that she said happened over several nights in July at the corners of 15th and Sarah streets, 26th and Carson streets and the 2600 block of Josephine Street.

"With all the added traffic and people there on weekends, and with the problems they're having on the hilltop, we really need to have somebody we can work with so we can have a long-range neighborhood plan," said Judy Hackel, of the South Side.

Top members of the Pittsburgh Police Bureau brass attended the meeting and listened to the neighbors' concerns.

One woman asked Chief Nate Harper why some police cars can't be pulled from other zones. She learned that the department has 900 officers, but not all of them are on patrol around the clock.

"Out of that 900 officers, we have to break it down to officers assigned to investigations, to operations, to administration," deputy police chief Paul Donaldson said. "The allotment of officers for Zone 3 station is 19.4 percent of our operations officers."

"We spent $107,000 in overtime," Harper said. "As the deputy chief's statistics will show, there were 900 arrests. The 900 arrests were for people urinating and disturbing the peace in the South Side."

The police station is scheduled to move to Allentown on Jan. 1.

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