Marie Pastorius, of the city's Tow Pound, has answers. She explained at the June 17 Zone 3 Public Safety meeting that abandoned vehicles are a chronic problem, but one which concerned residents can solve.
"A call to my office, 412-255-8999 or to 311 gets the ball rolling," Pastorius said.
Cars which are the subject of such calls may not disappear immediately, but their days are numbered. Ten days, to be exact, is what is given the owners of these vehicles to remove the cars to a more suitable place. If the owners don't do it, the city will, with its tow trucks. This also applies to cars abandoned and illegally parked. Cars which are classified as dangerous --- meaning they are leaking fluid, are on jacks, or have broken glass, don't get the ten-day grace period. They are towed immediately.
Pastorius also pointed out that public streets are not the place to do major auto repairs. People who have used streets for such purposes, and who are reported as doing so, will get a visit from police. Changing a tire on the street is okay, of course. But significant repairs -- no.
Last year, some 270 cars were towed from the Hill Top communities because of being abandoned. This year, the total to the present month is 114.
At present, Pastorius said, some 90 tows are pending in Hill Top communities, as follows:
Allentown - 9
Arlington - 3
Beltzhoover - 9
Bon Air - 2
Carrick - 15
Duquesne Heights - 2
Knoxville - 18
Mt. Washington - 20
Overbrook - 3
South Side Flats - 1
South Side Slopes - 6
St. Clair - 2
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Citizen reports are very much a part of "the way we build a case," Commander McNeilly said. She cited the ZAP-IT program (Zone Awareness Program) as a way of increasing interstation communications so that information can be pooled and used most effectively.
A resident asked, "How do you get the police to write a report? They've told me that writing a report is 'at the discretion of the officer,' and the officer doesn't feel like writing a report."
Commander McNeilly assured the residents that "If the incident is a crime, they are _compelled_ to take a report. If a crime has not occurred, it may not be necessary for them to take a police report."
Responding to other residents' queries, Commander McNeilly said that "Every meeting I go to, I hear the same thing (concern about police doing their jobs.) The officers would like to do their job. They are doing the best jobs they can do given the constraints they work under. These are constraints of resources, of cars, of officers, of time, of funding...Yes, there are some few that have issues, that need to be reeducated. If an officer doesn't respond in a professional way, definitely get that officer's name and let me know. The name, the date, the time -- everything. I can't deal with something unless I know about it."
Commander McNeilly urged residents to communicate with her electronically, giving her email address as catherine.mcneilly@city.pittsburgh.pa.un.
She added, "There is no room for dishonesty at my station. We do not lie to the media about anything. We do not lie to the public. The officers do not lie to me. If there is something unacceptable to you, tell me. I will come back to you with an answer. You may not like the answer, but it will be an honest answer."
Conducting the meeting was Ken Wolfe, chief of staff for City Councilman Bruce A. Kraus, who is the chair of the Zone 3 Public Safety organization. Wolfe said meetings will no longer be held in Banksville, as Banksville will soon be outside of Zone 3. The group's next meeting will be held on the third Wednesday in November, at 7 p.m., at the St. Clair AA building at Spring and Eleanor Streets, in Arlington.