City Leaders Launch New Initiative To Make Communities Safer

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Making communities safer is the goal of a brand new initiative just launched in the City of Pittsburgh.

City, community, and public safety leaders joined forces this morning. Together, they introduced a new program called the Safer Together Community Partnership.

"Our administration has been about community policing from its start and this only helps to more adequately formalize that policy," Mayor Bill Peduto said.

The partnership has five strategies mostly focusing on building relationships of respect and trust between the Department of Public Safety and the community.

"The public safety challenges that are plaguing our communities, particularly our disadvantaged communities of color, are problems that police alone cannot solve. I love the name of the initiative because we, as members of the community really are safer together when we stand up in unison," Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay said.

"The goal is to have less marches. The goal is to have less incidents and the way that we do that is the very basis of community oriented policing, where the people who are in the neighborhoods work with police to provide information that stops that crime from ever happening," Peduto said.

Leaders say a big part of the program will be coordinating a series of community conversations.

There will also be a focus on the creation of new communication tools to reach community members and development of an overall city-wide outreach effort.

"We believe that it takes a village to raise a city. So, we want to work together, across racial lines, across this entire region to make Pittsburgh the most livable city for all of its citizens," Dr. Darryl Canady of the Micah 6 Pastors Coalition said.

Members of the mayor's office, City Council, and the Department of Public Safety will head up the new partnership.

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