Recap of March 2025 Lawrenceville Happenings: Crime in Review

On Thursday, March 6th, the Lawrenceville Happenings Meeting was hosted at CLP – Lawrenceville (279 Fisk St) from 6:30-8 PM. This meeting was hosted in-person with 30 attendees and online via Facebook Live to roughly 20 attendees throughout the meeting. The focus of this Happenings was the annual crime in review presentation for 2024 by Zone 2 Police’s Crime Analysis Unit. Following the presentation, Commander Novosel of Zone 2 opened the floor to discuss residents’ questions and concerns.

The meeting opened with introductions from Emma Gamble, Community Engagement & Program Manager at LU, and Ross Greenberg, Business District Coordinator at LC. They shared an overview of their organizations and an agenda for the meeting. Both organizations have public safety-related trainings coming up. LC will have a Mental Health First Aid and Narcan training on Wednesday, March 12th, at 10 AM at Spirit, and LU will have a Bystander Intervention Training on Thursday, March 20th at 6 PM at Goodwill or online. Registration is encouraged at bit.ly/Bystander2025.

They then turned the presentation over to Dr. Heath Johnson, the Crime Analysis Coordinator of the Pittsburgh Police. Dr. Johnson reviewed the crime rates of the past year (2024) and the 5 year averages of crime in the neighborhood. Some highlights of Dr. Johnson’s presentation included:

• The Pittsburgh Police Department’s database was recently switched over to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which expands the categories to track crime in our city. This means that for this year, it can be hard to compare some data points year-to-year, but by next year we will have more comparison points.
• Property crimes and crimes against persons are up this year, especially due to car related thefts and break-ins, but our crime incident levels have stayed below 2018 levels of 552 in a year. 2024 had 428 crime incidents reported.
  • Motor vehicle theft saw a 34% increase in the past year. Dr. Johnson and Commander Novosel advise locking cars and hiding items of value. There will be a club giveaway event in April with Zone 2. Details to come soon on our social media and newsletter.
• Lawrenceville experienced 2 shootings at the now-closed Dijlah in 2024, one resulting in the death of Malcolm Nowlin. Moving forward, LU and LC will continue to work with our community and Zone 2 to ensure our neighborhood is safe and that our neighbors look out for one another. Zone 2 plans to increase their presence in the neighborhood as the weather warms up.
• Calls regarding overdoses in Lawrenceville continue to trend downwards, likely due to the availability and knowledge around Narcan.

Dr. Johnson then answered community members’ questions that focused on hate crimes, harassment, property crimes, and traffic calming. Acting Commander of Zone 2, Commander Novosel, also joined in answering community member questions and sharing how to connect with him as issues in the neighborhood come up. It was advised that 311 (linked below) be utilized for non-emergency issues, but 911 be utilized for pressing matters, which does include a car blocking a driveway.

The meeting closed with a review of upcoming events and thanks to all for attending. If you would have questions/concerns, please email info@lunited.org or call 412-802-7220. You can watch the meeting, review the PowerPoints, and get connected to the groups and presenters below.

• Watch the meeting
• March 2025 Happenings PowerPoint (full)
• Dr. Heath Johnson’s PowerPoint (without additional Happenings slides)
• Contact 311
• Contact Ashley Bryant, Neighborhood Engagement Coordinator at the Mayor’s Office, at ashley.bryant@pittsburghpa.gov
• Contact Commander Novosel of Zone 2 at timothy.novosel@pittsburghpa.gov