Well, good afternoon. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Mike Benner, public information manager here at the Portland Police Bureau. And we are here to discuss a significant copper wire theft operation recently foiled by the Police Bureau, namely our East Precinct Neighborhood Response Team. We'll be providing an overview of the investigation and the collaborative effort behind it. Assistant Chief of Investigations Rob Simon will speak on behalf of the Police Bureau and walk through the key points. We're also joined by representatives the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office. Their partnership, of course, essential in advancing this case. And we want to extend a special thank you to Lumen Technologies. They are a victim in this case and we are truly truly grateful that some of their team members flew in from as far away as Louisiana and Illinois to be here today and support this effort. Following their comments, we'll of course open it up to some Q&A and with that I will turn it over to Assistant Chief Rob Simon. Rob. Good afternoon. Thank you for all being for everybody for being here. As Mike mentioned, my name is Rob Simon. I'm the Investigations Section Investigations Branch Chief of the Portland Police Bureau. We're here today to share an update on a major investigation into organized copper theft which has impacted some critical infrastructure and local businesses. Since May of last year, members of our East Precinct Neighborhood Response Team have been investigating a sharp increase in copper theft incidents. These crimes involved cutting of both aerial and underground communication lines. Also rooftop HVAC components. This activity which you'll hear about after I'm done has posed a serious risk to public safety as well as disrupted services across the city of Portland. What has been uncovered is not an isolated theft and vandalism incidents but a coordinated criminal operation. Multiple individuals were involved stealing copper from infrastructure, underground cabling, and even personal residences. Working with Lumen Technologies who provided critical assistance including tracking technology which helped us follow the path of these stolen materials, investigators identified a central broker of the stolen material who played a key role. Using that person was using business credentials to sell stolen copper to recycling centers then repaying those who were stealing the copper and keeping a profit for themselves on top of it. On March 19th, our team arrested Deedra White of Portland. She's been charged with theft in the first degree, money laundering, criminal conspiracy, and other metal theft related charges. Investigators determined White processed more than $487,000 worth of metal in the past year. We estimate that that $487,000 to be multiplied over several times when we're talking about the real impact to people in the city of Portland and businesses. Four additional arrests have been made to this point. Those people have been charged with unlawful transportation of metal property. Um and just real quick to highlight, you know, copper theft is is not a victimless crime. It's has an impact to rate payers, produces challenges for independent contractors, creates a public safety risk regarding 911 systems, and it's very significant in the city of Portland. This case highlights coordinated intelligence-driven police work the Police Bureau is pushing to expand hopefully in the near future with a fully staffed agency. This investigation is still active. Additional subpoenas have been issued to major recycling businesses and their level of compliance is currently under review. Specifically, we'd like to thank Lumen Technologies as it has been mentioned as well as Multnomah County District Attorney's Office for their assistance and support. We would encourage that anybody else with information regarding copper theft or copper theft rings in and around the metro area, please reach out to the Portland Police Bureau. With that, I'll hand it off to Nathan Vasquez from the DA's office. Good afternoon. My name is Nathan Vasquez. I'm the District Attorney for Multnomah County. Today really marks a huge step forward. This is an issue that I've been hearing about personally whenever I've been out in East County. It's an issue that has affected really just a broad cross-section of our community. It has affected, yes, small businesses as you're going to hear from some large businesses but what is it really important to recognize are the individual victims this has affected, the families, the people that go either without lights, without internet, you know, maybe some of our elderly elderly relatives they're dependent upon medical devices. This is something that tears at the very fabric of our community and it's one that I'm proud to say that our partnership working closely with the Portland Police Bureau particularly out East has yielded a terrific result here. This is one where our neighborhood deputy, a program that is critical to East County, that neighborhood deputy who sits with those officers was able to work through hours upon hours of search warrants, to work through this investigation, to be there every step of the way to make sure that we're able to really dig at this issue. With this initial charging which right now stands at just a few charges but when we're done will be many many more. It's the first step in what I see as a long journey to making sure that we're holding people accountable, that we're digging at this issue, and that we're really standing up for the community that has been suffering as a result of this behavior. This is something that I have said from day one, I want to hold people accountable that are hurting our community and this is a key example of that. My neighborhood deputy working with Portland Police have got this process started and I fully expect that we will hold this individual accountable and as many of those people involved in this behavior as we can. I see this as progress towards making sure that our community has reliable utilities and services that we depend upon every day. And so I'm very thankful to our multiple partners and we're going to hear from Lumen Technologies Mr. Dan Chasen who was kind enough to come out to Portland to talk to us about how this has affected them as well. So thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. My name's Dan Chasen, c h a s o n. I run the theft and vandalism program for Lumen Technologies who is the parent company of CenturyLink that you might recognize and do business with. I'm not speaking here today and I didn't fly all the way here from Louisiana cuz I got a a dog in a hunt. I don't. But I can tell you this. I handle theft and vandalism worldwide for Lumen. And I have never dealt with a better, more professional police organization than Portland Police Bureau. Period. Not even close. I'm happy to announce that they have set the record, the Lumen record since the existence of CenturyLink, they have set the record for the amount of arrests related to one case. That's why I'm here. I'm here to say thank you. I've I've dealt with a lot of agencies and my job is to begin the initial investigations and get the police involved. I'm the law enforcement liaison. When I call a police department I can tell you that about 75% of the time I don't get a response or I don't get the right person. Which means we don't get any action. From the moment I contacted Portland PD they became involved. And they became involved at a level that certainly surprised me. Let me give you some numbers. Well, how big a deal is this? 2025 on record, we have over $2 million in losses in losses due to copper thefts in Portland, Oregon. Since we initiated this case and others with the Portland Police Bureau those numbers have gone to what is now $59,000 this year in losses. That's big. And it's big because people rely on us and our company for us to provide them quality services whether it be broadband, telephone, internet. Every cell care provider out there rides on our wire. So if you hurt me, you don't have cell phone. You hurt me, the hospital cannot diagnose you. Their computers don't work. We are an integral critical infrastructure piece that makes our community a safe place to live. But we had a secret weapon. What kicked all this off is I picked the phone up and I called our field and I asked that manager, "Hey, have you got somebody that can help me out?" And I had a guy volunteer. And his name is Carlton Easter. He's standing right there. Carlton's the reason this case became what it was. Tenacious, hard working, never complained, and it's not even his job. Because we use devices. We have secretive devices, some I'll discuss, some I won't. But we use GPS trackers and we use a covert camera system to try to capture these criminals doing what they do in the dark. He was able to coordinate with Portland Police Bureau and that's what made this case come through. He took his time and taught them what to look for and to prevent how to prevent future cuts. There's a number of things that we have to have for this to work. And the number one is police buy-in. You ought to be proud of the Portland Police Bureau. I am thoroughly impressed with them. And that comes from doing this job most of my life. The first thing we need is law enforcement. The second thing we need is the public. If you see something, say something. If somebody's in your yard, you know the little green boxes that sit That's a called pedestal. You knock that pedestal out, you knock out our services. But you go in there and you stick a sign on the side of your vehicle, pretend like you're a contractor and go in there and tear it up, and you just robbed that whole neighborhood of services. For what? $20 worth of copper? That's about what it boils down to. The next thing we need is we need a strong relationship with legislators. The laws on the books give the police the ability to do their job. And fourth, we need good prosecution. There is no deterrent like showing people striped sunshine to keep them from doing it again. And I've got a message for those people that criminal element out there, if you're within the sound of my voice, you better listen and listen good. Number one, I have flooded this area with devices that there are probably three people on this stage even know about. And they're designed not to be seen, you don't know they're there, and you touch one of our assets and we will be alerted and we will engage the police. The way that works, it's called if you feel lucky, go right ahead, cuz you got to be lucky every time. I only have to be lucky once. I wish you good luck if that's your intention. But the one thing I want to announce in closing is this, my main reason for coming here. >> [snorts] >> Number one is to thank the Portland Police Bureau in person. The second is to look at our team, namely Carlton, and thank him for his involvement. We've got Jared up here with legislative affairs who's working with the legislation on stiffening some of the penalties when related to copper theft. And most importantly, to thank everybody for working together. This came to be because we worked together. And it's a program that I started 2 years ago and we call it top cops. Well, top cops is now being awarded to Portland Police Bureau Major Crimes and North Precinct NRT, the nerds. And they are going to be recognized as the 2026 Lumen Top Cops of North America. Not of the city, not of the state, not of the region. They are the big dog this year and I congratulate them. I want to recognize them and like I said, we put this together. I got the call at 3:00 on Friday afternoon. Try to get here from the woods of Louisiana and get up here from Podunk Airport. I spent 12 hours in airports coming here. But I'm happy I did because we do want the want the department to know that we appreciate them. They've done an exemplary job and we can look forward to working with them in the future. I don't know who's behind me, but you >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, Dan. While that is a very tough act to follow, we will try and open it up to some Q&A. I want to acknowledge officers Will Shelton and Michael Terrett from East Precinct Neighborhood Response Team who are here and might be able to help with some of the questions. Uh Deputy District Attorney Kelly Burris is also here and an integral part of this whole thing. So, with that, we'll open up to questions. If uh just identify who you are and who the question's for. We'll start with Joey. Yeah, Joey Bucker with Koin 6. Anyone can answer this, but we've been tracking a series of copper thefts, some small businesses in the Montavilla area, as well as we saw 60 light fixtures taken out along I-84. Any reason to believe that this is connected to those? Michael will answer. Hi, I'm Officer Michael Terrett from uh East Precinct Neighborhood Response Team. And I'm Officer Will Shelton with the East Neighborhood Response Team. So, um as you heard from the District Attorney and from our chief, this impacts or we've seen it impact a lot of infrastructure. We have brought up here today a sample of those elements. So, everything from Lumen technology, big thick copper wire, to uh small businesses, homes where we see AC units, um all of this stuff has been seized. Um you know, it is our assumption and our strong belief that uh these wires have come from all over, from from every spectrum. And and specifically to your question, um you know, you can see samples from each of the things essentially um that have been mentioned. We see communication wire, we see um you know, um construction, um and we see here examples of of wire that has been stripped and burned and then take on taken to the recycling in center as well. Um and also in our in this process, we spent a lot of time, this case has been going on for a long time. Um it's still ongoing. Um however, we've watched, we've spent missions um with multiple neighborhood response teams, times outside of patrol time uh to follow, investigate, and identify, and kind of witness this type of behavior. Um I have a a question too. They're coming in from KXL and um maybe the chief can answer this one or whoever has the information. I understand that at least one fatality is attributed to copper theft and whether it addresses that. You want to address that one? This is the shaft. The one on Northeast Airport Way? >> Yeah. Yeah. The motorcyclist. Yeah. It's another, you know, it's it's basically, you know, the the previous answer answers that. Obviously, we are looking into that, but this operation and operations like this one are multi-layered and where we interdicted, it's hard to say where all this copper came from. Uh obviously, we know a lot of it uh belongs to Lumen Technologies because of the tracking device, but again, we don't know where all of it comes from. But I can assure you that through uh you know, investigative techniques that we won't get into, this case is not closed and a number of the folks here behind me are working to trace this stolen copper back to different places, maybe even that case you're referencing. And another question for DA Mike Schmidt. I understand that, you know, a few years ago we were looking at the epidemic of catalytic converter thefts. There was legislation to crack down on the metal recyclers and what they could buy and how they could buy it. Are any other crackdowns do you think necessary in order to to stem the sale of copper? How are we able to get a hold of them? Yeah, so just to give the context to that, when we were suffering from that particular, what I'll call epidemic of that nature, we went to the state legislature to to really kind of crack down on the recycling of those catalytic converters. Uh with this one, if you read the affidavit that Deputy DA Kelly Burris put together, what you'll see is that essentially the uh the person that's been charged was acting as a fence, right? They were collecting from all these other smaller providers and lining up to to provide that to her. She had um you know, procured the whatever necessary license that was created uh and then went and and resold it. Your classic fencing operation. So, what we saw is that that did have a really significant impact on the catalytic catalytic converter thefts. Uh this is an area though that when we were going through that process, we identified kind of points in which we believe that can be strengthened. It is something we will continue to push. In speaking with Lumen, my understanding is that they recently passed a bill um in what the last legislative session or at least pushed one that that also looks to strengthen in this area. I'm happy to let them talk further about that, but it is an area that we continually look for ways to, um, to stem this illegal behavior and to make sure that our small businesses, our homeowners, um, you know, are are protected as well as our big businesses that we rely upon for these very fundamental aspects of our community. Chris Foster, KGW News. Um, Aaron Angle with K2 News. Uh, can you just explain what charges you are able to file under these circumstances and what criminal punishment you Yeah, I'll I'll have uh, Deputy DA Kelly Burst come up. We've filed some so far, but I would say that those are very much a placeholder and that we will be uh, seeking additional charges through the grand jury process. Um, you know, the list that we have so far, um, includes, I know, money laundering, uh, theft. There'll be some additional ones, but uh, Deputy DA Burst, can you kind of give us an idea of some of the other charges that we'll be looking at? Certainly. Um, so as everybody has mentioned, you know, this case, this investigation is still ongoing. Um, at this time, um, the individual who was arrested last week has been charged, um, you know, with money laundering, uh, theft in the first degree. So, um, I as well as the additional kind of metal related charges. Um, so, I mean, those are the types of charges that we're probably looking at here. Um, money laundering for, of course, you know, the proceeds being the subject of criminal activity, um, when um, this individual is you know, returning the metal for money and then giving that money to, um, the person who is giving her the metal under her business license. Um, you know, theft in the first degree charges, which is, you know, selling, um, you know, property that's the subject of theft. Um, there are also, uh, charges related to when somebody There are certain records that have to be kept, um, during a transaction, uh, when somebody is selling a metal to a scrap metal recycler. Um, and so there are also laws that um, there are requirements for that, um, and laws related to, you know, not providing false information knowingly into one of those metal records. Um, and so, uh, those are the types of charges we're looking at. It early We're still kind of early on in the investigation as a whole, um, and there have been additional investigative kind of steps that are ongoing. If I could follow up really quickly, just for either of you, if police and prosecutors are able to link that deadly crash on Airport Way to one of these individuals, is it possible you'll file murder or manslaughter charges? Well, um, to be clear, murder would be extremely difficult cuz that's an intentional charge. Um, if there is a criminally negligent homicide or reckless, it's something that we'll look into and see. It is a question of we're going to uh, go where the facts lead us, where the law allows us. Uh, I have been repeated that I want to make sure that we hold people accountable that are harming our community. If we can prove it, we'll do it. One last question for Portland Police, if I could be more potentially illuminated, I'm wondering if you're able to quantify, whether it be the number of thefts or the total amount of copper that has been stolen, what exactly have you all recovered? Well, recovered, I mean, you see some of the pieces up here today are pieces that we recovered when we served the search warrant last week. Um, but that piece is still ongoing, right? Um, and that's part of that investigative technique that we've talked about. Um, so that's still in the early processes. Can you say how much you got last week from the search warrant? transactions? Yeah, of course. So, for the process of the search warrant, I think we've documented approximately eight to 10 transactions that we personally saw. Okay? Um, and you know, here, like I said, these pieces right here were part of the transactions where we we pulled these pieces right here, right? And you can see, you know, they're different items. Um, that we've highlighted. But, with that investigative technique that we're talking about, right? When we go through, we should be able to marry up and we can calculate how many transactions that have happened, right? And from there, tabulate, you know, what we're what you're asking. And to add to that, you know, we know that, um, one of the key suspects was running multiple traction transactions per day, taking, receiving metal, exchanging it at the recycling, uh, facility for money, bringing the money back out, taking a a slice off top and then providing the person the remainder remainder of money who brought the metal. We know that they got to a point where they were so busy, they were asking for help for other people to come help in those transactions. Um, this type of wire here, you'll see as an example of burnt wire. So, this is where the wire will be cut and then some place in some location, when we took we served a search warrant, uh, last year, we found a lot of um, evidence of certain person burning this wire, where they will take off the cable. And you can kind of see how we go from this type of wire and then the recycling, um, to this wire. Um, we also can see this is called bright wire. So, this is an example where you'll actually get more money for that. Lumen brought us, um, here are great examples of their communication cables. And you can kind of see how these are cut and sold. So, these are aerial wires. These are big, heavy wires. Um, and there are some samples of of other ones, too. This wire, this transaction would occur where the, um, you know, the casing would get stripped off, the wire would get burned, bu- uh, bundled up and then taken to, you know, our fence, our broker, um, and then taken in for the recycle. But, from again, from our missions, when we ran them and surveilled this stuff with the help of this incredible partnership with Lumen advising us on where this was occurring, you know, we would see constant, constant transactions. It was a a non-stop day of activity. And just to be clear, right? We talked about, um, we want the community to know what we're looking for, right? So, my partner I spoke about like this is the wire that we see, right? You also We also see This is These are the pieces that are being taken from AC units, right? Talked about a lot about the Montavilla neighborhood that had a lot of AC units that were taken. And then these pieces right here would be taken from like a construction site, right? And you can see they're jagged, they've been cut off, right? Um, so, if the community sees this stuff, right? Please report it, right? Um, so that we can conduct the necessary investigations, right? In the next >> And and um, one of the piece on this. The the reality is the partnership with Lumen and Carlton specifically working with us over over time has really led to the benefit of us, you know, extrapolating and expanding the investigation to the other victims victims as the District Attorney mentioned on this case. You know, their ability, where we focus and we look at, um, their infrastructure led us to finding this type of work as well. And all of these different kinds of wire were all recovered from the home of of Dejer White, correct? From that incident, correct. >> Yeah, from this from this one incident. This is all from that's one search warrant. Yes, except for these sample pieces. Yeah. Right. Thank you. Anything else, Captain? Sure. Can you expand on where the search warrant was executed? Was it a residence? Was it, uh, a warehouse? And in what part of Portland? So, we served a search warrant on Dejer White in her vehicle and then from there we conducted, um, a search of her residence and um, a motel room. We won't get into why she had a motel room, but um, so we did we we searched her her vehicle and her residence. And other And other locations, that's right. And for investigative reasons, we won't get into the details. Is it possible It's only here Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we we can we can tell you this. So, the information we received was, um, recycling this material, especially the bright metal, will give you about, um, $5 a pound. Um, so if you would bring that in. Um, we know that you get a lesser rate for burnt wire or or, um, category two. I think Lumen, Carlton, do you want to talk about perhaps the value of these? So, It's about uh, 10 lbs per per foot of these large the larger cables is about 10 lbs per foot. And so, if you're looking at, you know, the $5 a pound, then that's kind of what that would work out to be, so. Sorry. So, $5 a pound is about the average rate you would get for the copper. Is that right? Yeah, that's average. Which one did the suspects have the most of? I'm Kayla Armstrong with KGW News. Which one did the suspects have the most of? I bet you can't answer that. The bright wire. Yeah. Yeah, good question. So, the suspect was really, as the District Attorney mentioned, like a a fence, a real classic fence of like everybody in this room could bring us, um, copper, could be any one of these, and then they would literally facilitate into the recycling facility, um, complete the transaction and then the payment would occur. Um, so in that instance, there was no one, um, um, abnormally higher than the other. It was every form variation of copper. Um, and that's why we brought a sample of everything here today. Okay. Cuz she had all of these. Can you Can you One more question. Can you tell me about what percentage of the thefts came from residential properties? Does it happen very often? Uh, I go over here. Yeah, and um, I I think that's a really good question because I think a lot of people, and I think this press conference hopefully will help, don't reach out and don't mention that perhaps they've had their air conditioning unit damaged, destroyed, or taken. And maybe there are some more um residential occurrences that we don't know about. You know, the the partnership with Lumen helps us understand the full extent. I mean, you heard the numbers of 2 million um and we know of an amount of over 487,000 from the the broker fence who we took into custody. So, you can think as to what that is across the city. I mean, we have definite numbers from the partners that we do know, but you know, we believe that there are others out there who've had copper taken maybe from building sites um maybe from other locations, too. All right. Well, thank you. Before wrapping up, I just want to point out there are a couple individuals in the room who uh you know, work on the legislation piece of this and and bills and laws that have more teeth. And so, if you're interested in that angle or a little bit more on that, they they can accommodate uh some one-off interviews uh after this is up. Uh with that, I'll say thank you as usual to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office uh who are just incredible partners in anything uh we do here at the Police Bureau. Uh but again, a big thank you to Lumen Technologies. Uh Dan coming out from Louisiana and Scott from Chicago area. You know, when I called on Friday, uh it was basically a courtesy call to Dan saying, "Hey, we're doing this next week. You know, maybe I can connect you uh via via like a virtual meeting with reporters if they're interested in talking to you." And an hour later, he was booked and coming out uh to say thank you. And it's been great uh getting to know you over the uh recent days and really appreciate your partnership and the continued partnership moving forward. And with that, uh always a thank you to you, the media, and have a great rest of your day.