PublicSource (https://www.publicsource.org/category/public-safety/)
Using the state’s Right-to-Know Law, designed to enable citizens to access public records, PublicSource filed requests for emails by providing names of city employees, keywords and a time period to enable the city to locate the public records. The city has repeatedly denied the requests, arguing that they’re too vague.
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.
The August death of McKees Rocks toddler Au’driana Cohen became national news: A curly-haired baby killed by a drug commonly used as elephant tranquilizer. Another casualty of the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Mark Wilson is a 21-year veteran of the Wilkinsburg Police Department. When violence does erupt in his hometown, Wilson sees up close how the presence of illegal guns escalates the situation. He’s left wondering what pushes someone to take another’s life.
A Little Tikes basketball hoop sits in the corner of the porch on Rebecca Avenue in Wilkinsburg. A witch on a broomstick dangles from the home’s awning, marking the house for trick-or-treaters in advance of Halloween
The disrespect and harm fuel the larger problem of violence against trans people, especially black trans women in our society. Refusing to follow best practices is both unprofessional and presents a threat to the survivors who must add correcting these errors to their grieving process.
Pittsburgh has a tough time coming clean on illegal guns.
Despite promises of transparency and an embrace of data-driven policing, the city has for years resisted telling the public almost anything about sources of illegal guns.
Since 2012, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police recovered more than 3,600 guns from suspects, and roughly 2,600 of those firearms are believed to have been carried illegally, according to a PublicSource analysis of police data. That’s the most detailed account to date on the scope of Pittsburgh’s illegal gun market. But it’s incomplete.
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.
