Shooting review panels a part of Allegheny County plan to reduce violence

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — You see the crime scene tape and the tears falling from loved ones, but what you don’t see in a shooting is the work happening behind the scenes.

“We will have grandmothers give us information, girlfriends, elders all the way to the people on the street,” Lee Davis, the Director of Violence Prevention for Greater Valley, said.

Davis plays a crucial role in tackling violence prevention in the Woodland Hills communities. He sits on a shooting review panel that meets monthly to dissect each incident.

“We have six people on our panel, we have resource providers, public safety, faith-based, violence prevention experts as well as therapists. We figure out how to intervene and not just intervene but find out how can we bring resources to the person who’s the perpetrator and the victim,” Davis said.

It’s all part of a community gun violence reduction plan with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. These communities spread throughout the county from Sto-Rox to the Mon Valley were identified as the most gun-riddled areas and each has a shooting review panel.

“What’s newest here is the real focus on reducing incidents of gun violence in a really targeted way through these intervention teams,” said Jenn Batterton with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.

The county has made a five-year commitment with $50 million and while it’s just one year in, those on the ground believe it’s working.

“There was one situation where we had to help a family move out of town. It was that bad, but we had the resources through the county and our resource provider to help that family and now they are doing well somewhere else. It relieves certain stress of certain situations in our community,” Davis said.

However, the county is looking to make some changes by reducing the shooting review panels to one and using the data to build up a rapid response plan to the violence.

“Violence is impacting certain areas of the county more than others but it is also transient so if we silo a shooting review in one community, we think we are missing out on too much information,” Batterton said.

A centralized approach with the community groups in those target areas doing the follow-up actions. It’s a program, Davis hopes keeps going.

“We are going to collectively push for 10 to 20 years hopefully,” Davis said.

It’s also a program the county plans to keep investing in.

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