Pittsburgh set to expand gun data tracking with new grant

PITTSBURGH — The tracking of gun data in Pittsburgh is expected to be expanded, marking the latest attempt by city leaders to stop gun violence.

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh City Council is set to introduce a $200,000 grant from Everytown Support Fund to make that happen. The fund comes from Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the United States.

With the money, the city would hire someone to track and interpret gun violence data, including homicides, aggravated assaults, shots fired, gun arrests and officer-involved shootings.

City officials said the tracking would officer a deep dive analysis of the gun violence problem to try to find out why it keeps happening.

There has been a recent spike in crime involving guns. As of late April, there were 20 homicides in the city and nearly 50 shootings in which the victims survived. That’s an 80% and 90% increase since the same time last year.

The Department of Public Safety’s current gun violence data dashboard is available HERE.

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Cox Media Group