Interesting robbery statistics (Pittsburgh, Bloomfield, Oakland: neighborhood, gated, shoppers)

[LovetheEastEnd]

PITTSBURGH -- Fifty-one people were robbed at 5 p.m. last year in the city of Pittsburgh.

Dana Klein from Oakland finds that number troubling because it seems like a safe time of day. "I can't imagine how they carry that off," said Klein.

Channel 11 wanted to know when and where people were getting robbed the most in Pittsburgh. We compiled a list of every street robbery investigated by Pittsburgh police in 2007, then broke down those numbers by time, type and neighborhood.

Downtown had the most robberies, with 91, followed by Homewood with 81. Bloomfield came in third with 47.

Out of 1,040 robberies last year, most of them, 515, did not involve a weapon. A gun was used 433 times. Criminals used a knife 50 times.

The worst time of day for street robberies was at 11 p.m. You're least likely to get robbed in Pittsburgh at 7 a.m.

Despite the numbers, shoppers we talked to said it's not going to stop most people from going about business as usual.

[BrianTH]

It would be interesting to see that broken down by time of year as well. For example, 5:00 can either be very bright or somewhat dim depending on the season.

[Geeo]

Groan. Another WPXI/Channel 11 sweeps story to scare people. Stories like these are put together by the stations in February, May and November to bump up the ratings, which in turn determines what advertising rates they can set. It's all consultant-driven. Consultants these days drive the content of most local stations around the country. The goal is to scare people ("Is your food safe?" "Is your family safe?" "You could be getting cancer and not know it!" "Stranger danger!" "House of filth!" "Predators are after your children!") Then they put together ominous promos and air them ad-nauseum to get people to tune into the station at a certain time.

Make no mistake, journalism has very little to do with television news these days. It's all about the ratings and serving their advertisers.

[pitt_transplant]

Oooh I missed this. Thanks for the post!

[Pitts10yrs]

Originally Posted by Geeo

Groan. Another WPXI/Channel 11 sweeps story to scare people.

I agree with this....Just get sick of hearing stuff like, "Your doctor is killing you? Details at five."

I actually wrote WPXI after 9/11 to tell them to stop this because they were only contributing to the anxiety that was present. Believe it or not, those ads stop, but my guess is they are effective or they would not have continued with them.