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Can Portland stem the gun violence without adding police? Beat Check Podcast
Updated 9:06 AM;
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Portland is on pace to hit 100 homicides this year, an unprecedented tide of violence that many other cities also are facing. Last week, the City Council unanimously acted, funneling millions to violence prevention groups and creating a new police unit.
On the latest episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, City Hall reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and cops and courts reporter Maxine Bernstein talk about Portland’s new plan to tackle gun violence without boosting spending on police.
We discussed how the deal came about; how it compares to the Portland Police Bureau’s Gun Violence Reduction Team disbanded last year; what the money will allow these groups to do, and much more.
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
Crime in Portland, Oregon has gotten to the point that police say they can’t keep up with the number of reported shootings, stabbings, and other acts of violence, but three of the newest city council members are still resisting Mayor Ted Wheeler’s call to spend $2-million dollars to put a team of police officers on the streets dedicated to combat the rise in violent crime.
Instead, they’re proposing the city spend nearly $5-million on anti-violence programs and adding more patrols of park rangers in the city. Yeah, park rangers.
The memo, sent to Wheeler last week and obtained by
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Democratic Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler submitted a request to the Portland City Council on Thursday for a one-time $2 million expenditure for police, months after the council voted to cut nearly $16 million from the police bureau’s budget.
Wheeler, who previously advocated for the Portland Police Bureau’s budget to be cut, cited a dangerous surge in gun violence throughout the city as the primary reason for requesting the funds, according to the Oregonian.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has requested $2 million in emergency funding for police following a continued spike in shootings & homicides. Last year, the city defunded millions from police & abolished the gun violence reduction team in response to BLM. https://t.co/GVs59VBMCD
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Mayor Ted Wheeler Will Seek to Bring Back Police Patrols to Reduce Portland Shootings Is this the Gun Violence Reduction Team again? He says no, but it looks familiar. Portland police officers converse with racial-justice protesters in June 2020. (Wesley Lapointe) Updated March 11 Mayor Ted Wheeler is asking the Portland City Council to reestablish a uniformed police squad to patrol communities impacted by fatal shootings. On Thursday, Wheeler joined a group of religious leaders seeking to reduce shootings in Portland s Black community in backing a proposal, drafted by police, to create a uniformed patrol team to prevent gun violence, increase funding to shooting investigations, and create an independent oversight committee to watchdog the new police patrol.