PITTSBURGH — City leaders respond to homicide solve rates uncovered by 11 Investigates
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One week after 11 Investigates uncovered a list of city neighborhoods where more than half of the homicides are going unsolved, city councilmen who represent some of the neighborhoods are responding.
“There’s much more that we can do,” said Councilman Bobby Wilson, who represents district one. “We definitely want the families that lost loved ones to feel like things are getting solved. I have full trust in our public safety system here, and I want the public to see how well that they operate and how they can be a real partner in solving these heinous acts of violence.”
Wilson and Councilman Khari Mosley both expressed concern about some of the homicide solve rates published by 11 Investigates last week, and the maps we produced that show every city neighborhood, how many homicides occurred there over the last five years and how many have been solved and closed.
11 Investigates requested data from every police agency that investigated homicides between 2021 and 2025, then mapped every case. There were more than 250 homicides in the city during that time span.
“I think we had a blind spot until you brought this to our attention, that we now need to focus and marshal our efforts toward not only bringing the murder rate down but also bringing the rate of solving these crimes up,” Mosely said.
The data shows city neighborhoods where no homicides occurred during the time span, some where a handful occurred and others with double-digit statistics.
Among the hardest hit were two neighborhoods in Wilson’s district. Police solved two of Brighton Heights’ seven homicides and two of Northview Heights’ eight homicides.
“They’re both deeply concerning,” Wilson said. “We definitely want people to trust in the system.”
In Carrick, which is represented by Councilman Anthony Coghill, 64% of the 11 homicides are unsolved.
Homewood North had 18 homicides and 56% of them went unsolved. Garfield had five homicides and 80% of them are unsolved. Both communities are in Mosley’s district.
“I think we’ve made incredible progress in Homewood, and I was also pleased to see a number of neighborhoods not on that list,” Mosley said. “The police are not going to be able to do it alone. This is going to have to be a community-wide effort.”
11 Investigates found that witness cooperation, or lack thereof, is a key factor preventing police from making more arrests.
Pittsburgh police’s violent crimes commander tells 11 Investigates that detectives are getting more cooperation than years ago, but he admits there are neighborhoods where police tend to get less cooperation and there is more distrust.
Councilman Wilson said he had a call with newly sworn-in Pittsburgh Police Chief Jason Lando on Tuesday, discussing the findings of our story. Wilson requested more information and a better understanding of why solve rates are lagging in some city communities.
“He took it urgently. He was writing notes immediately, said he would get back to me,” Wilson said. “So I appreciate you bringing this to light. I think it’s important that we continually work on matters like this.”
11 Investigates also looked into hundreds of homicide cases outside of city limits to see how many of those cases are being solved. You can find the maps for all of Allegheny County here.
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