The first priority of any government is to keep its people safe. Portland is not as safe as it used to be. The reason is bad policy. And the result has been detrimental to our culture, economy, and peace of mind.
True, Portland is not as bad as the right-wing media makes us out to be. But we do have problems that require urgent attention: ubiquitous drug use; open-air drug markets; increased gun violence; street racing; property crime; graffiti. We need to stabilize, and we need to start with public safety. Here are my thoughts.
Hire more police officers
Right now we have less than 900 sworn officers. After an upcoming retirement cliff in November, we are likely to have less than 800 officers. That is unacceptable for a City of our size; we will never function properly, nor be safe, with such a profound officer shortage. For comparison, Milwaukee, Wisconsin has 50,000 less residents, but double the police officers. Today we have 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents. We should be closer to 3.0 officers.
Having more officers will allow for more robust patrols, and quicker emergency response times. Increased police presence should deter crime. And having a larger staff will allow for officers to gain much needed rest between shifts, which should facilitate better decision making and higher morale.
Lower emergency response times
Our emergency response times are dangerously high; the national standard is four minutes – Portland’s average is 19 minutes. Unacceptable. The response time is a public safety failure with life or death ramifications. We need to lower the response time. Hiring more police officers is part of the solution – but so is hiring more fire fighters and 911 dispatchers.
To lower emergency response times we also need to address our homelessness crisis. The truth is that incidents relating to homelessness dominate our emergency response system. For example, 41 percent of fires that Portland Fire responds to are related to homeless camps. Meanwhile our ambulances and medical responders are inundated with overdose calls. The result is a system that is too overburdened to respond punctually to a life or death emergency.
Support our first responders
Portland has not treated our first responders well – either culturally or fiscally. Culturally, Portland was a leader in the Defund the Police movement; we allowed an anti-cop culture to permeate to an extent that hindered the hiring process and drove resignation. Instead, we need to recognize our first responders as public assets that are vital to our quality of life and our peace of mind. This recognition can’t just be cultural, however; we need to properly fund our first responders. And in our constrained budget environment, properly funding our first responders will likely require difficult decisions affecting our non-critical services. Nonetheless, our first response system needs to be the top priority – lives are at stake.
Increase community engagement
Everyone can help to make Portland safer. We need re-engage to our community crime prevention programs, i.e. Neighborhood Watch, Business Watch, Park Watch, Apartment Watch, Community Livability Teams, National Nights Out.
Similarly, we need to reinstitute the non-sworn Crime Prevention Specialists position, which used to be embedded with the neighborhood associations to assist citizens with their crime and livability issues.