TOWARD a SAFER COMMUNITY Volume VII
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If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. TOWARD A SAFER COMMUNITY Volume VII August, 1978 AII,egheny Regional P'lanning Council Governor's Justice Commission ;, \ .. TOWARD A SAFER COMMUNITY Volume VII NCJRS fE~ 5 \979 ACQU'SlTlot·~ .. ' August, 1978 Allegheny Regional Planning Council Governor's Justice Commission 1110 Park Building 335 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART 1 - A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF CRIME AND JUSTICE IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY I. Crime........................................................................................... 1 II. Reported Crime . .. 1 III. Police ........................................................................................... 7 IV. Courts .......................................................................................... 9 PART 2 - ISSUES AFFECTING THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY I. Regional Police I n Allegheny County By - David A. Varrelman .............................................. 21 II. The Status Offender in Allegheny County, a Demographic Study of Referrals for 1976 ............................. 38 PART 3 - A STATUS REPORT ON THE ALLEGHENY REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL FUNDING PROGRAMS FOR THE PERIOD 1970 to 1978 ......................................................... .46 APPENDICES Appendix A - Crime in Allegheny County by Region ..................................................... .48 Appendix B - Programs Funded by the Allegheny Regiunal Planning Council 1970 to 1978......................... 58 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE GOVERNOR'S JUSTICE COMMISSION ALLEGHENY REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL Charles Owen Rice, Chairman Harvey Adams James F. McFarland Richard Caliguiri Margaret Milliones Anthony Clark Thomas H. Pryor Robert E. Colville Bernard J. Regan Thomas M. Cooley, II William R. Robinson Eugene L. Coon Eunice Ross William J. Coyne Raymond Schafer, Jr. Walter Dabney Nathan Schwartz Thomas J. Foerster Henry R. Smith, Jr. Robert French Edward Sobehart Lloyd H. Fuge Charles H. Starrett, Jr. Joseph M. Gelman Robert R. Stone James F. Howard William Tepsic James E. Hurd Richard Terrick Martha Johnson William Washington Frederick D. Just Cyril Wecht John Karavlan R. Stanton Wettick Wayne P. Kelly Howard White Betsy Marti n Sophie Masloff Council Staff Dennis G. Starrett, Director Walter J. Rowland, Associate Director Louis G. DiNardo, Evaluator Sharon Horsley, Secretary Mary Lou O'Hara, Juvenile Justice Planner Betty Jean Wallace, Criminal Justice Planner Debra McCloskey, Student Intern Donna Coleman, Staff Assistant Alle~~qi2haI1425 Park Building Planning COuncil r~~~f~~Jii;:Ylvania 15222 Governor's Justice Commission This booklet reports the state of the criminal justice system in Allegheny County. It tells of police, courts, criminals, and issues facing us now and in the future. On the basis of what this book contains the Allegheny Regional Planning Council has established priorities for the funds at its disposal. The analysis of the criminal justice system tells the citizens, and the Council, whether or not what the Council has been doing with Law Enforcement Administration funds in Allegheny County has made any changes in the system, reduced trials, or improved the courts. In addition to the crime discussions, this volume also looks at other issues facing the county. Issues like police consolidation and who is this illusive child called the status offender. Toward A Safer Community has more information on the criminalJO~iCe system in Allegheny County than is availa~le'in any other source. The Council wants citizens to know about the cr'minaJ j stice system, nd what is being done to improve it. The pro ~Im d only be sOl~e by a combined effort of government officials cr mi al justice agen ies and personnel, community organizations, d i zens. This in} rmation tells us where we ought to be moving., ~ /" f! 2 //,/" / /1 Ch r'le~1 Owen Rice, Chairman ,--------------------------------------------------------------------~-- PART 1 Statistical Analysis of Allegheny County's Criminal Justice System I. INTRODUCTION In 1968 the U.S. Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Justice Commission and the Regional Planning Councils have Safe Streets Act. The Act was reauthorized in 1976. The purpose staff, which together prepare the research and analyses necessary of the act is "To reduce and prevent crime and juvenlle delln to determine problems and needs, develop programs, process quency, and to insure the greater safety of the people." To applications, maintain a grant and fiscal management system, and accomplish this purpose the Congress determined that "law en evaluate funded projects. forcement and criminal justice efforts must be better co An initial step in the development of the comprehensive plan for ordinated, intensified, and made more effective at all levels of the Allegheny Region is preparation of statistical analyses cover government." This coordination and intensification is to be ing reported crime, victimization, police services, and court achieved by: (1) encouraging States and units of government to activities, These statistics are made available to the public through develop and adopt comprehensive plans based upon their evalua publication of Toward a Safer Community. tion of their particular problems of law enforcement and criminal justice and their designs for dealing with them; (2) authorizing In the presentation of reported crime rates an effort is made to grants to States and units of government in order to improve and pinpoint the specific crime problems in each group of com strengthen law enforcement and criminal justice; (3) encouraging munities and the patterns over the last two years. Demographic new methods for the prevention and reduction of crime. The Act information is reviewed in conjunction with reported crime. provided for the establishment of the Law Enforcement Assist FolloWing the sections on the crime and the police, information ance Administration (LEAA) within the U.S. Department of on juvenile and criminal court flow is analyzed to grasp offender Justice to set overall policy and guidelines and priorities for flows after arrest. allocation and award of the funds provided by Congress for im This volume contains significantly less stati"tical analyses than in plementation of the Act. previous years. This is the result of the development of data To receive LEAA funds each state was required to set up a State systems within the various agencies of the criminal justice system, Planning Agency, which in Pennsylvania is the Governor's Justice which enables them to complete and report to the public their Commission (GJC). This agency is responsible for the preparation own analyses. Therefore, a new section has been added which of an annual comprehensive plan which delineates the problems discusses current problems and areas of interest in Allegheny and needs in the criminal jUstice system in the State, and the County. The two issues to be faced this year are police consolida programs which are to be implemented to deal with those tion and the statistics on that group of children known as status problems and needs. The GJC also is responsible for monitoring offenders. and evaluating the programs which are funded to determine This volume consists of three separate sections. Part 1 is the whether or not they in fact do address the stated problems and statistical analyses of various components of the criminal justice needs, and if so, with what impact. system. Part 2 will present the short papers on contemporary These responsibilities are carried out on the local level in Penn issues noted above. Part 3 is a status report on the operation on sylvania through the eight Regional Planning Councils (RPC), of the Allegheny Regional Planning Council for the period which the Allegheny Council is one. The members of the GJC and 1970-1978. of the RPC's are appointed by the Governor. The Governor's II. REPORTED CRIME As in previous years the basic reporting system for crime is the Violent Rape Arson Violation Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), Robbery Receiving Liquor Laws which, in Pennsylvania, are collected by the Pennsylvania State Aggravated Assault Stolen Goods Intoxication Police. & Battery Forgery Disorderly The categorization of a reported crime is made by the individual Stolen Property Conduct police officer, and so can vary from community to community, Weapons Traffic Offenses officer to officer. Burglary Commercial Vice Other Offense~ The Uniform Crime Reports are compiled from the number of Property Theft Sex Offenses/ incidents of reported crime which are then indexed to a popula Auto Theft Morals tion of 100,000 to allow meaningful comparison among geo Offenses graphical areas. Additionally, the crimes are grouped by Part I Narcotics and Part II, with a breakdown between Violent and Property Gambling offenses. A. Crime In Allegheny County Part I Part II During 1977, 105,014 incidents of crime were reported to the Murder and Simple Assault Family Offenses police agencies in Allegheny County. This represents a decrease of Non-N egl igent Vandalism Driving While 9,667 incidents from 1976. Table 1 outlines and summarizes this Manslaughter Fraud Intoxicated information for the past four years. Table 1 The decrease in Part I crimes in the County Less the City was a Reported Incidents of Crime in Allegheny County significant 18%. The decrease in the City of Pittsburgh was just as 1974 -1977 significant,