Crime in Oakland has decreased during the past year, according to a director of the Oakland… Crime in Oakland has decreased during the past year, according to a director of the Oakland Business Improvement District, an organization comprised of approximately 80 property owners and 130 businesses in Oakland.

According to Alecia Sirk, the executive director of OBID, crime statistics in the Oakland area are lower than they were this time last year, contrary to popular belief.

“The perception of Oakland is that it is a dangerous place,” she said, “but the facts show that crime is down from last year. The perception of criminal activity in Oakland is hurting Oakland, and we need to get the word out that it’s not that bad.”

Sirk pointed to statistics compiled by the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Crime Analysis Unit as evidence that Oakland has improved: Between October 2001 and October 2002, drug violations decreased 67 percent; burglary in Oakland decreased 50 percent; public drunkenness decreased 50 percent; simple assaults decreased 33 percent; drunk driving violations decreased 25 percent; theft decreased 6 percent; and overall crime in central and south Oakland decreased nearly 20 percent in the last year.

Sirk added that graffiti tagging, traditionally an indication of an unsafe area, decreased 72 percent in Oakland during the past year.

Sirk said she does not believe that crime decreased because crime reporting decreased.

“I don’t think that’s true at all,” she said. “For example, it’s not that there are more sexual assaults occurring, it’s that the sexual assaults are being reported. This is a good thing.”

“To say that people do not report crime is a narrow view of the world,” she said. “Not reporting a crime sets someone else up to be a victim and every crime reported saves someone from becoming a victim.”

Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney said the recent wave of criminal activity in the area certainly increased concern for public safety, especially since they occurred within such a short period of time.

“The incidents were very close to each other,” Delaney said, referring to the sexual assault on University Drive, the stabbing of former Allegheny County prosecutor Christopher Conrad and other incidents that occurred earlier in the school year. “Some occurred during daylight hours and at [odd] times.”

Delaney said he believes that part of the reason crime is down is because this time a year ago, the public was focused on an incident of national interest.

“This time last year, everyone was talking about Sept. 11,” he said. “Our concentration turned to whether or not we had an Anthrax policy and things of that nature.”

Deborah Furka, the director of Public Safety at Pitt, also said Sept. 11, 2001, heightened the public’s awareness of criminal activity, and people are more aware of their surroundings than ever before.

“Individuals are assuming responsibilities for themselves and for their actions,” Furka said, “and they’re doing it in a way of making themselves a nonvictim.”

Furka said some crimes, such as sexual assaults, are reported less because of the private nature of the crime, but that to the best of her knowledge people are coming forward with information when they are witnesses or victims of criminal activity.

Furka attributed the decrease in crime to a very visible police force in Oakland, one that is a combination of several departments.

“You have the police from the city of Pittsburgh, Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Magee-Womens Hospital and the United States Security Guard that is contracted by Pitt,” she said. “They’re all in Oakland at any given moment. When you look at the amount of opportunities there are for crime – with as many cars and stores and people that are in Oakland daily – it’s minimal.”

Sirk said Oakland is the third largest “Downtown” area in Pennsylvania, meaning that aside from Philadelphia and downtown Pittsburgh, Oakland has the third largest amount of people in the state on the average weekday. Keeping this in mind, she said the BID has tried to stay very connected to the businesses in the area with a “security network meeting” that distributes information regarding suspicious activities in Oakland.

She said OBID played a critical role in the removal of “quick-change artists” from Oakland. A quick-change artist, according to Sirk, is a thief who asks a person or a group of people for change continually until the thief has more money than he or she originally had. For example, a quick-change artist would ask for change for a $20 bill, then immediately ask for change for a $10 bill, then immediately ask for change for a $5 bill, and eventually fool the person or people involved, said Sirk.

“They end up with $40 when they started with $20,” she said.

Sirk said people must continue to use common sense and “obey the basic laws that their parents taught them,” and safety and awareness will continue to increase.

“You can’t be stupid and expect to be safe,” she said.