PITTSBURGH — Target 11 has learned that Pittsburgh police launched an internal investigation into the response to a home invasion after the man who lives there claimed it took too long for police to arrive and when they did, the officers didn’t seem concerned.
“Our neighbor just happened to hear some noise, went up on their deck and saw a woman just entering the back of our house in the middle of broad daylight,” Matthew Thom said.
Thom said he immediately called 911 and went back to his house on Fifth Avenue in Uptown to confront the woman.
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“She ended up trying to fight with us literally, physically fight,” Thom said.
The intruder took off, but Thom’s neighbor followed her. Thom claims it took officers 20 minutes to arrive, even though the station is less than 1 1/2 miles from his home.
Police took the woman’s ID card and some drug paraphernalia that she dropped on the floor, but left other items, according to Thom.
“I asked what do we do with them and he said, ‘Throw them in the garbage. We don’t care.’ Right, and one, I don’t want to touch these items because I don’t know if there’s drug paraphernalia on there, you know fentanyl,” Thom said. “We actually had to ask the officer to come and search our home to make sure that there wasn’t a second person, and he seemed, just very annoyed that we were making that request.”
Police did go to the location where the neighbor followed the woman and arrested and charged Dana Pritchard with criminal trespass and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Thom filed a complaint with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and Deputy Chief Tom Stangrekci sent him this email response:
“An internal investigation will be requested to determine if any policy violations occurred.”
Stangrecki went on to say he will discuss the neighborhood patrol and community engagement issues with the operations branch and Zone Two leadership.
“I appreciate the work that police do that they are putting their lives on the line, but ultimately they’re in that profession. And whenever we call for help because we have a home invader, you would expect a much quicker response. And like I said, whenever the police do arrive and they start engaging, they just seem to lack the skill to engage properly with the people in the community to make them feel safe,” Thom said.
Channel 11 reached out to the public safety department for comment, and it referred us back to the deputy chief’s response. The police officers’ union said under the contract agreement, it is prohibited from commenting.
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