{"id":243181,"date":"2026-07-14T15:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/243181\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:31:06","slug":"niskanen-center-applauds-pennsylvania-legislation-to-improve-violent-crime-clearance-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/243181\/","title":{"rendered":"Niskanen Center applauds Pennsylvania legislation to improve violent crime clearance rates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Media Contact:\u00a0<br \/>Kristie Eshelman<br \/>Director of Communications<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.niskanencenter.org\/niskanen-center-applauds-pennsylvania-legislation-to-improve-violent-crime-clearance-rates\/mailto:keshelman@niskanencenter.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">keshelman@niskanencenter.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington, DC (July 13, 2026) \u2014 The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.niskanencenter.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Niskanen Center<\/a> applauds the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Governor Josh Shapiro for enacting legislation to help solve more violent crimes. The Violent Incident Clearance and Technological Investigative Methods (VICTIM) Act, which establishes a grant program under the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), was included in the Commonwealth\u2019s fiscal code as part of the 2026 budget agreement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cToo many victims and families never see justice because violent crimes remain unsolved,\u201d said Jason Olin, senior government affairs manager for criminal justice at the Niskanen Center. \u201cThe VICTIM Act makes a smart, evidence-based investment in the people, technology, and support systems that help law enforcement solve serious crimes. Research consistently shows that increasing the certainty of apprehension is one of the most effective ways to deter violent crime, and Pennsylvania has taken an important step toward making communities safer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The VICTIM Act authorizes PCCD to award grants to law enforcement agencies so that they can retain and train investigative, forensic, and analytical personnel; purchase forensic technologies; and strengthen witness support programs. At least 10% of grant funding must be awarded to agencies serving rural communities. Grant recipients must report on clearance rates, time-to-clearance, and personnel and technology investments, and PCCD must submit an annual evaluation to the Appropriations and Judiciary Committees of both chambers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Niskanen Center thanks Rep. Briggs, Rep. Kerwin, Rep. Harris, Sen. Picozzi, Majority Leader Pittman, Majority Leader Bradford, and Governor Shapiro for their leadership in getting this important legislation across the finish line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.niskanencenter.org\/policy\/criminal-justice\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More information on the Niskanen Center\u2019s criminal justice policy work can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">###<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Niskanen Center criminal justice team advances an evidence-based agenda to reduce the social costs of crime and punishment. Our priority is to deter crime and reduce violence by building effective systems that deliver proportional punishment swiftly and predictably, and by ensuring law enforcement has the capacity to keep our neighborhoods safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact:\u00a0Kristie EshelmanDirector of Communicationskeshelman@niskanencenter.org Washington, DC (July 13, 2026) \u2014 The Niskanen Center applauds&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-243181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}