February 22 2021
Stan Penkin, Kim Silverman, Tiffany Hammer, Bob Davis, Vadim Mozyrsky and Alex Stone are members of Portland s Public Safety Action Coalition.
One of the primary responsibilities of government at any level is to provide a safe environment for its population. In the past year, our city has reduced the Portland Police Bureau budget by $27 million and is seeking a 5% reduction across all bureaus in the next fiscal year, including the police.
Police Chief Chuck Lovell has requested that the bureau budget be cut by only 1% to allow for the filling of more than 100 vacancies. Reducing the police bureau budget by 5% at this time is inadvisable, and City Council should heed that request.
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Multnomah County DA also urges the Biden administration to take action against gun violence.
As gun violence continues to make headlines in Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler said he supports moving more Portland Police Bureau resources to gun violence response. And Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt was one of 46 prosecutors nationwide that urged the Biden administration to take action against rising gun violence.
At a regional gun violence response coordination meeting Friday morning, Feb. 5, Wheeler said he supports the deployment of a sergeant, four officers and two detectives to be on call to respond 24/7 to shootings to assist in crime scene processing.