Jul 16, 2008 9:11 pm US/Eastern
Pittsburgh Police Experience Cruiser Shortage
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
The KDKA Investigators have learned that there is a city-wide shortage of police cars.
The problem is most critical on the South Side, the Pittsburgh's largest police zone where more than three-quarters of the cruisers are out of service.
Today, there was just one police car parked outside the Zone 3 station and only a handful of others out on patrol. The rest were among dozens of police cruisers at the city's repair garage - many of them on their last legs.
"We waited so long and allowed the vehicles -- not just police vehicles but all of our vehicles within the city -- to deteriorate to the point now where are vehicles are constantly in the shop," Police Union President Dan O'Hara said.
O'Hara, who also works at Zone 3, says the police and the public are now paying for years of tight city budgets and an unwillingness to purchase more.
"You have to double up officers in a single vehicle and sometimes they're even putting three people in a vehicle and then they're responding to calls that way," O'Hara said.
"We know it's a problem. The mayor has addressed it with the capital budget this year and it's just a matter of time in getting these vehicles in," Public Safety Director Michael Huss said.
He says the Ravenstahl Administration inherited the problem and is taking steps to address it, ordering $3 million in new police vehicles.
A strike at an axle plant has delayed the delivery of about 60 new cruisers.
"It's our obligation to provide them good equipment, and that's what we intend to do," Huss said.
Meantime, the South Side has experienced a rash of muggings and break-ins. Business owner Andy Fetzko thinks criminals have noticed a lack of police presence too.
"Obviously they feel secure enough to do that they're not going to get caught or they wouldn't be doing it," he said. "Desperation's desperation, but that's a crime of opportunity."
Huss says the situation is temporary and does not believe the public is in danger. Still, he wishes those police cars would hurry up and get here.
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