Portland Police Bureau has led that renaissance. In the last 18 months, we have been the tip of the spear in this conversation in every way, and we will continue to answer the call. We will continue to do our best to meet the expectations of Portlanders. >> [music] >> Hey, good morning. Thanks for joining us today. Today is a great day of celebration for the Police Bureau. I just had the honor and privilege of swearing in 16 new Portland police officers. There's a lot of significance for that that I want to highlight. One, uh July of last year, Police Bureau embarked on a goal of trying to hire 21 officers a quarter. We want to hire 84 officers a year. We believe that with hiring that amount and then increasing our retention, our training, and then uh managing for retirements and separations that we can continue to grow the organization, and I'm proud to say uh July 1st of this year, we'll have nearly 20 more officers than we had July 1st of last year. 20 is not nearly enough, but that is a significant number, and it's an indication of the growth of the Police Bureau, and I'm appreciative of that, and I'm appreciative of the team that has been working hard, and the conversations I just had with some of these recruits from a diverse background, literally from all over the world, all over the country, differing uh ages, genders, race. Um we continue to really put the best possible uh product forward for Portlanders, and I'm grateful for that. It's important to remember though, although we as are growing the organization, and today I can tell you we have 809 sworn positions, not all of those positions are working in the field. Sometimes there is a misunderstanding when we refer to sworn officers. I am considered a sworn officer. So, I'm not out there doing police work. I'm not out there taking radio calls. So, when we tell you we have 809 sworn sworn members, we actually still have a very finite number of officers that are in patrol. This is why we continue to see the late response times. This is why it continues to be problematic to address many of the issues and concerns that Portlanders have. Out of that 800, nearly 100 are in some type of training capacity, either in Salem at the academy or in our own academy and so forth. So, when you really parse it out, I just want to highlight that growth is coming and and we are grateful for that. Um but we are still way behind our other major city partners and what's required to properly staff city of Portland. As we celebrate today, we also recognize the passing of the budget yesterday brings with it tremendous amount of consequences for the police bureau and for the city and the service we're going to be able to provide. Um I appreciate uh CA Lee and the mayor the very challenging budget season. Um council had several opportunities over the last few uh weeks to make some adjustments and decisions were made not to uh reinvest in policing. And because of that, we're going to have to change the way we do business. This is not where we can do more with less. We are going to be doing less and that means will translate to um thousands of hours less patrol time. It will require a reprioritization of our primary services, uh reduction in training, and of course, we're going to see um we anticipate seeing layoffs with our PS3s, which have been a critical alternative response model um that we've had to use. So, I'm definitely concerned about that. It has been a trying budget season for all. I appreciate um the work that's been done um but now we have to operationalize the decisions that were made over the last couple weeks by council. In spite of all of that, I just want to just end with my appreciation for the members of the organization. I mean, just in the last week, our special emergency reaction team, our crisis negotiation team, and detectives were able to apprehend another homicide suspect. Our clearance rate about homicide the last year has been exceptional. Saturday [snorts] night and into Sunday morning over the weekend, we responded to a number of shootings around the city. Continuing to process those scenes, gather evidence with the hopes of building future cases. Um two people involved in a non-injury shooting were taken into custody here just recently. We've seen a remarked decrease and uh the number of shootings within the city consistency over consistently over the last couple of years. We continue to work with our community-based organizations, Ceasefire, etc. that are helping us in that work. Two nights ago, we disrupted three different illegal street take illegal street takeovers. These have high impact, high risk to community. Some of these takeovers have reduced uh produced fatalities, shootings. So, we continue to be attentive to that. And that's really just a snapshot. So, as I go into this uh next fiscal year, recognizing that we are going to be uh reducing some of the services that we're able to provide, I want to commit to Portlanders that we will strive for excellence as we always do. We will continue to be a learning organization, and we will continually be um doing our best to provide that level of safety that Portlanders should expect from their police bureau. So, thank you very much. >> Chief, how are your officers reacting to these productions? >> Yeah, there's definitely uh disappointment. One of the things that's unique about this budget cycle, and I believe Councilor Ryan highlighted it yesterday on the dais, um the last decade, every bureau in the city has grown or most bureaus in the city have grown. The police bureau is one of the only ones that has been reduced. In fact, since 2005, to balance the budget, previous administrations have eliminated officer vacancy positions. For example, we currently have 68 vacancies, which once again, I hope to fill over the coming months. But the typical response when budget cuts get tight is to reduce those to eliminate those vacancies. And in doing so, we've eliminated almost north of we've eliminated north of 150 officer positions and about 60 of our professional staff round numbers. Mike can get you specifics. Since 2005, I'm the first chief in a budget situation such as this to say no, we're not going to reduce officer vacancies. I believe that Portlanders need and deserve an appropriately staffed and resource police department and that includes having the right amount of police officers and the right amount of investigators. So, although we're disappointed we have a path forward and that path forward is to continue to emphasize hiring of police officers with an attempt to fill those vacancies and then push beyond that to right size the bureau. >> What could Go ahead. >> With an 8.5 billion dollar budget, can you specifically outline for Portlanders what's getting cut from police? >> Yeah, so we're looking at roughly right now and these are rough numbers we can get you more specifics, but it's about 6.5% maybe 6 to 6.5% and somewhere around 20 million dollars. There were a couple of administrative positions which I'm grateful we were able to the council preserved, but overall the big cuts are going to come one in our what's called our external materials and services budget. That's about 6 million dollars. That's what purchases equipment provides us to be able to to do training at a high level. It's what keeps the wheels on the bus moving. So, we're going to see a 6 million dollar reduction in that. We're going to see about a 2 million dollar reduction in our overtime which equates to about 20,000 hours of less police officers patrolling the streets or prioritizing certain investigations over others. You know, we have numerous investigations that require extensive follow-up surveillance. You know, most of these major incidents don't happen during you know, business hours. They happen on weekends. They happen at night. So, we're going to have to prioritize what we're going to be able to invest in and and pursue. And then we're also going to be trying to make adjustments in both our technology and our fleet services, just seeing if we can find efficiencies anywhere, um which is sort of a double-edged sword because the use of technology and fleet provides for a higher level of service and um productivity. And when we make those adjustments, we could see, you know, a drawback on that. So, I'm looking at trying to trying to find about $20 million. >> What could potentially keep you up at night as you begin to implement these changes? In other words, what concerns you the most about these reductions? >> Well, uh my my concern lies more, I would use the word disappointment. Um I know that the Portland Police Bureau is going to continue to show up and respond. And so, I have no doubt that we will make ourselves available to the best of our ability. We will answer the call much like we've done for the last couple of weeks, much like we've done for the last several years. So, um just hear this. This is not any kind of pullback on our part. Uh it's not a, you know, I've heard references used of work stoppage and slow down and things like that. That is not the case. We are public servants first and foremost, and we will continue to answer the call. We will continue to do our best to meet the expectations of Portlanders. What disappoints me is I know that it is going to be at a lesser level. And we were already well documented being behind the curve on being properly staffed and properly resourced. And unfortunately, given the circumstances that we're in, we're now going to be a little bit more behind. But with that also comes that realism, comes the optimism that if we're able to continue to hire, and this is critical, that if we're able to continue to hire, Portlanders should know that there is a path forward. And as we continue to add officers, much like we've done this year for the first time to have a net gain in many years, is it should be a sign a sign of encouragement that um people are identifying Portland as a place where they want to come to be able to work, play, and thrive. >> You mentioned PS3 layoffs. How many do you estimate? And is that the only area that you're anticipating layoffs? Or are there certain other areas that you're looking at? >> Um currently right now it is an 80% reduction in our PS3s. So we had 42 positions, 38 which were filled, and we will be uh we're anticipating only having eight PS3s uh effective um August is when the layoffs are scheduled unless there's a change. You know, PS3s are s- become such a fantastic part of the police bureau family, they become a tremendous resource. Estimated to take about 25,000 calls a year that police officers um could focus on other higher priority calls. Just yesterday there was an incident East Precinct where two PS3s and a police officer spent almost six hours with a disoriented man, helped him find his phone, helped him find his car, make sure that he was able to get home safe. These are the situations that we're being called to because of the gaps in the system. Is that a police related matter? Probably not. But is it necessary? Is it important to be able to make sure that this person is is uh able to get safely home? Absolutely. And having PS3s to be able to support the officer in that call for service is a huge benefit. So we're going to have to adjust to this um additional call load. >> Chief, what about response times? You said that obviously your officers were going to answer the call, but is this something that Portlanders need to think about when they call 911? >> Yes, we have been challenged with response times. And this goes back to my conversation around uh when we talk about sworn members. Remember we said we have 809 sworn members. So people think, well, call response times should be much lower. But when you actually look at the officer ranking, you see 100 of them are in training, and other officers are assigned sparsely but around the bureau supporting investigative work, our number of officers actually available to take those calls for service is still very low. And um I'm hopeful that as we continue to hire that that will change. But I don't see an immediate change. In fact, the risk is because of some of these cuts and because of the fewer overtime hours allotted that there will be less out there patrolling at different periods of time. We will prioritize based upon call loads and and data and so forth to be available at those highest ones, but [snorts] there could be um scenarios where people are going to have to wait significantly longer for less priority calls. Um we're evaluating all possibilities within the organization around online reporting, around telephone reporting, like are there other systems that we can look at? Um but I do not see um reduction in call times being uh a real opportunity for us in the near future. >> Portland has Portland has this stigma of being a lawless city around the world country. What would you want to say to people that are now saying, "Oh, now they're not going to fund them." How would you want to address that to people seeing this? >> Yeah, I understand that perception, you know, born out of a lot of decisions that were made 2021, 2022, but you know, this is a beautiful city and this is a city that is that I am comfortable in, you know, walking the streets and I participate in a lot of events in the city of Portland. This is a safe city that is really trying to find its legs. I do think we have a lot of challenges and I am deeply concerned at these cuts to the police bureau. But the safety system is certainly not dependent upon us, but it is we are required as a critical part of it. I would suggest that as we talk about public safety that we need to remind ourselves that although the police are not the answer, we are probably the single biggest part of the equation. If you look at cities that are thriving right now, for example, you look at San Francisco and the success they're having in San Francisco, they've re- they've re- created a real-time crime center down there. They're so they're using technology. Governor Gavin uh Gavin Newsom sent 500 California Highway Patrol officers into San Francisco a year ago. They're addressing drug use in the Tenderloin. They're taking enforcement action combined with all of the other things that are needed. I was in Boston a couple of weeks ago. It's a city that's half the geographic size, almost the same population, maybe a little more. They have 2,800 sworn members. We have 800. You know, we were in the city for for 3 or 4 days and just, you know, really enjoyed it, but also felt a great sense of safety and security. So, we really need to continue to have the conversation about the role of police in the public safety system. I believe uh Portlanders should have a great deal of confidence in the police bureau they have and in the response they're getting, but I'm also a realist and I'm also recognizing that we are still falling short in many ways and I want to prepare the organi- prepare the community for that so that we can continue to strive to be better. >> So, you say you're trying to hire, but there's dozens of vacancies and council's trying to close a budget that's more than a hundred million dollars short. So, how do you, you know, tell them that these cuts shouldn't happen when positions that are open may seem like easy cuts to make? >> Right. Those hirings aren't happening. >> Right. Well, I'm a uh as I mentioned a little bit ago about sort of being a realist, right? Like, we have to have some hard conversations and it's just, you know, not around policing, but obviously that's the lane that I'm most comfortable in and most familiar with. And take two decades of continuing to cut from the officer rank and expect that things are going to improve around response times. Expect that we're going to be able to increase our investigative capacity um to be able to do our our outreach and our relationship building. Like, that's just not going to work and it hasn't been working and what we what we've seen over the last several years with some of the spike in crime is the inability of the police bureau to respond appropriately. So, I'm really moving us in a direction that I believe is in the best interest of the police bureau and in the best interest of the Portlanders, but it is going to require us to continue to have very difficult, very public conversations about our values and less about budget and more about what it is you want the city to look like. How do we want it to be known? How do we want it to be seen? >> Chief, are you worried about using experienced officers? There are departments across the country struggling to hire. Uh they're also dealing with budget issues. How's this going to impact your recruitment? >> Yes, there's certainly a risk there that I'm concerned about. Although I will say in conversations I had this morning with these newly hired officers, they're paying attention. They're listening to our podcast. They're seeing us on social media. They're watching uh my press conferences and they are coming here because this is the community they want to serve. Many of them are born and raised here. Some have left and come back, but some have not. Some today we hired somebody from Hawaii. Um we've hired uh other parts of the country, Arizona, etc. because of what they're seeing. So, I believe we actually have the wind to our back right now when it comes to recruitment and hiring. Retention, that is a risk. Um I know that the members can feel uh undervalued, underappreciated sometimes by these decisions that are seen um around the budget and uh our pensions are portable. In other words, you know, they can go work for another agency and continue to stay within the same pension system. And we've seen that happen. We've lost a couple officers to a few other agencies locally just in the area um within the last year. So, we're going to continue to emphasize uh really caring for our members, trying to create opportunities for them to be able to expand their um growth and learning and uh focus on wellness and really continue to make the police bureau a place where they have confidence they can thrive. And adding these officers today, getting to a net gain this year is a big boost. >> The budget's adopted, but looking ahead, you know, looking forward, when money's tight at the city seemingly everywhere, how do you convince council that you need more when what you have now isn't at capacity if you talk about vacancies? >> Right. Well, it's not up to me to convince them. It's going to be up to Portlanders to convince them. We serve at the behest of the of the community. So, um what I'm what I am committed to is asking Portlanders to continue to elevate this conversation in a way that they see as appropriate. Um when I meet with community groups, they oftentimes ask, you know, what can we do? What can we communicate to council? How can we talk to the mayor? And I say, "Listen, I don't need you to go in there and say Bob Day's the greatest chief. I don't need you to go in there and say the police bureau is amazing. I want you to go in and talk about what your values are, what's important. I want to be able to go to the grocery store and not feel threatened. I want to be able to go to the park and be able to enjoy a Portland park and not be harassed. I want to be able to have a small business and when I come in, not see a broken window for the 14th time and have everybody tell me that's just nothing we could do about it. And I got to spend another thousand bucks." Those are Those are just basic community values that we need to express. And I've said many times, if there are alternatives out there, then let's take them. But, there aren't. Nobody wants to answer the 200-plus thousand calls a year that the Portland Police Bureau takes. And that doesn't encounter the calls that are also falling off the shelf that people aren't calling because they've given up on the system. So, the reality is um we want Portlanders to come forward, talk about the things that are important to them, and ask all of us in leadership to make sure that we're funding what those things are. >> People are frustrated. I'm sure you know that. In North Portland, for example, they're still talking about losing the St. Johns uh North Portland Precinct in 2009. Now, they hear more cuts are coming, and they're worried about their neighborhoods, especially in areas where we've seen crime. Just last weekend, we saw a couple deadly shootings up there. What would you say to those folks? >> Yeah, I think that concern is real. I have a fondness for North Precinct, 7214 North Philadelphia. I worked there for a number of years. I loved it. And uh the community of St. Johns always valued and appreciated having that police presence. And that was actually my district for a couple years in the early 90s. So, it's not lost on me the geographic separation they experience with the cut there and all makes it more challenging. As mentioned earlier, we used to have five precincts and we've shrunk by three. We've shrunk by two. We only have three precincts now. Um I have a vision and a belief that we should have a precinct in each district. We went to this new form of government, we should have four precincts, we should have a precinct in each district cuz each district has unique needs and challenges. North Precinct is far too big right now. It goes from St. Johns out to 170th and Sandy. And it's based out of MLK and and Killingsworth. Um so, there is a delay there in being able to cover that area geographically. One of the things that we are looking at, of course, is that it's not just all on North Precinct's shoulders. There are times when we have to adjust resources. We can send officers from Central Precinct and from East Precinct, whether it be out to St. Johns and other places. So, we're preparing and managing uh in a way to maximize our resources. But, I definitely believe that as the organization grows, we're going to need to uh reposition our resources to better meet the demands of the community. >> A year from now, how will Portlanders know uh whether or not these reductions were a good decision? In other words, are they going to notice the cuts to the police bureau in a year? Are they going to see how things have changed because of these cuts? >> Yeah, that's one of the biggest challenges in policing is that oftentimes, and this oftentimes that when police departments are cut and reduced, the change is gradual. And this probably isn't going to happen on July 1st. Um I would argue that um the challenges that we've had over the last several years are because of decisions that were made between 2005 and 2020. We relied upon many other factors for an appropriate safety system while minimizing the role of the police bureau and of policing. And then when crisis hit, we weren't prepared. We weren't ready. And that is what led to this, you know, massive spike in homicide, shootings, unreported crime, etc. etc. etc. So, the risk that concerns me is that we're probably not going to see some significant change on July 1st. And maybe not even in January. We might be, um, you know, laying the groundwork for harm that could be materialized a year or two or three years from now. That's why we can't just be focused on what's in front of us. We can't just be focused on the current budget crisis in front of us. And we have a plan. The police bureau has a plan for how we grow the organization to meet the demands and the needs of Portlanders for years to come. This isn't about right now for me. This is about what the future looks like. The challenge over the next year will be to, you know, minimize the impact of that on community. I do think that they will see some They will They will be disappointed. They will be told no a little bit more often. But, the real jury will be out for years to come about decisions we're making now. >> We've heard a lot from city leaders about the sentiment that Portland is on the way back. I think the mayor's even used the term renaissance about where the city's headed. Today, in light of these cuts, do you share that sentiment? >> Absolutely. And I can say that with tremendous certainty. And the reason I say that is because Portland Police Bureau has led that renaissance. In the last 18 months, we have been the tip of the spear in this conversation in every way. Who would have anticipated the federal overreach in the city over the last 18 months? And the reason the National Guard wasn't here did wasn't deployed was because we had three Portland Police Bureau commanders who testified in federal court, whose testimony was taken as credible over that of the performance of federal officers. We are the only police department in the country that I'm familiar with that actually testified in court in opposition to the behaviors that we were seeing on our streets that were not in alignment with Portland values. That is huge. Every department talks about it. every agency or community talks about it. We took steps to do it and the judge said, "You know what? Based upon the credibility and the role of police bureau, we're going to impose these restrictions." So, you know, stepping in the way we have for the last 18 months, as well as working alongside the mayor and his efforts around ending unsheltered homelessness, working alongside District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, like bringing that level of accountability back into the conversation. But what the rule of law does and the importance of policing in a free society is it provides a level of predictability. It provides a level of certainty. All of us want to feel safe. That's different to each one of us, but all of us want to feel safe. And when we walk out the door, we need to know that when we go somewhere, when we drive somewhere, when we walk somewhere, when we have our loved ones, when we're out for dinner, whatever it might be, that there's somebody who's paying attention to allow for that level of safety. I see that happening. The numbers are going that direction. My concern is that um if we don't continue to invest in the recruitment and the hiring of our local officers, that we're going to lose that ground. I'm committed to not losing that ground. But as I said, we're going to see what the next year brings. >> Did any of the city council members express the disappointment that you're feeling right now to you after last night? >> Yeah, I certainly have a lot of conversations with council very different times and and places. Um I'm appreciative of those that did make some attempts in the budget process to try and restore some of this funding to us. Um but at the end of the day, you know, it's a big city, it's got a lot of challenges overall. Um I work very closely with the mayor and the city administrator. CA Lee has really jumped in. He has been, you know, very supportive, very communicative with me, um you know, coming on board in January. So, despite this, I continue to remain hopeful. And it's not a blind hope. I'm not I'm not an optimist. I'm not a half-full glass kind of guy, actually. I'm usually the first one to tell you how it's not going to work. But the reason I can be optimistic is because of the people that I get to serve with every day. Uh the examples I used at the beginning of this press conference tell the story. It's not about me. I'm just a facilitator in this whole thing. It's really the men and women that are doing the work in partnership with the mayor and the city administrator trying to manage um and work through the relationships with council. And then, the great Portlanders that we interact with every day. 200 plus thousand calls a year, not including our efforts to try and be, you know, engaged in community engagement self-initiated activity. So, you know, it's going to be a hard year. It's going to be tough for us, but I'm confident that we're on a path that's going to continue to elevate this conversation around policing. And I look forward to that conversation with Portlanders, with council, and with the mayor and the city administrator. >> We heard about looming cuts in the proposed budget. What was restored? >> Uh right now um the desk clerks were restored, which I'm appreciative of that. Our professional staff is critical to the ongoing success of the police bureau. This is going to allow us to keep our precincts open. We thought we were going to have to close North and East precinct. They have community rooms. They have um a lot of services they provide. They provide a place for people to come in, report crime, get information. So, we're grateful for that. And then, a couple of our administrative staff positions um were also restored, which once again are really behind the scenes, but without our professional staff you know, really carrying our weight as we go out uh and are the are the face of the bureau, um we just wouldn't be able to do it all. So, we did manage to um have, I believe it's a total of seven. I'd have to double check. It's about seven administrative positions that were restored. All right? >> Thanks, Chief. >> All right, guys. Good to see you. Thank you.