PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/author/matt-stroud/)
Matt Stroud is a freelance writer who specializes in criminal justice. He has written for Pittsburgh City Paper, The Atlantic, Reuters and other publications.
Three Allegheny County nonprofits have poured $355,000 in cash and nearly $72,000 in in-kind services into a campaign urging voters to approve a ballot referendum on Nov. 6 that would raise $18 million in tax revenue for children’s programs.
PublicSource has compiled a list of symbols that represent hate groups in the state.
“It would be good to call out hate crimes more when they happen and to show that there are consequences,” Lu-in Wang, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said. “One of the problems is when people think they can get away with it, then there’s no deterrence and it’s almost like you’ve gamed the system.”
Some members of city council struggle to recall B-Three Solutions or what the company has done for the city. B-Three has been commissioned to build the police bureau’s flagship data system and several related projects along with programs for the Department of Finance and the Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections. The city has paid B-Three about $4.3 million since late 2009.
Updated 2/20/18: The FBI confirmed to PublicSource that it does not have an open investigation into the city's relationship with B-Three. A Pittsburgh police officer filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming he faced retaliation for raising alarms about potential “waste and wrongdoing” at the police bureau. Being vocal about alleged problems with police software projects put him in the crosshairs of one of the city’s most influential Public Safety officials. As a result, Souroth Chatterji, a native of India, became the subject of threats and racism within the bureau, according to a whistleblower lawsuit filed in federal court. Chatterji filed the lawsuit against Deputy Public Safety Director Linda Rosato-Barone and the City of Pittsburgh.
Two city agencies are investigating allegations of wrongdoing between Pittsburgh police and city employees with a software vendor the city has paid at least $4.3 million.
A Pittsburgh-based real estate investment company has inked a tentative deal to purchase the troubled Bethesda-Homewood properties — a collection of 141 low-income housing units in Homewood, Larimer and Garfield, the company’s CEO told PublicSource.
Pittsburgh’s mayor and its controller are calling for policy changes in response to a PublicSource investigation showing that a no-bid, $1.5 million police body camera contract with Axon Enterprise was ushered to city officials by a police commander with financial ties to the company.
More than 4,700 pages of printed emails between Trapp and Axon representatives — provided to PublicSource through a records request with the City of Pittsburgh — show that Trapp became increasingly close with Axon over the years, and eventually helped to close Pittsburgh’s $1.5 million body camera contract for the company.
