More police needed on streets, in schools to combat ‘strain on public safety,’ Portland officials say

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Multnomah County, Gresham, and Portland leaders came together to show a united front in combatting issues in the area on Wednesday.

Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall, and Gresham Police Chief Travis Gullberg gathered at the Multnomah County Courthouse to speak on public safety and growing concerns in the community.

“Over the last two years, our community has been largely defined by a strain on our public safety system,” said Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt. “From emergency operators, to police, prosecutors, the courts, the jails, and public defenders. These deficiencies aren’t new, but they have been made visible while we continue to reckon with the global pandemic that has exacerbated these resources to the point of breakage.”

Portland leaders also provided updates to staffing efforts at PPB.

“By the end of the year, the Portland Police Bureau will see triple digit hiring numbers for both sworn and non-sworn Bureau staff,” said Mayor Ted Wheeler. “This is the first time in years that we have more recruits joining the police than leaving.”

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It was also announced that 14 additional officers would be hired by the end of this week, putting PPB at over 800 officers for the first time in a while, according to Chief Lovell.

“We are doing really well on the hiring front,” said Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell. “We are not only bringing on sworn personnel, some non-sworn professional staff as well. The hiring this week will push us above 800 for the first time in a long time. It’s an important milestone for us. Now the challenge is getting people into academies and to where they can get out, hit the streets, and start their field training.”

Speaking with Portland Police Association President Aaron Schmautz following the press conference, he said they’re feeling positive with the additional hires, but want to remind everyone they won’t be seeing the new hires on the streets immediately.

“The real difficulty is the officers who are taking 40 calls a day know that we have hired more than our attrition rate, which is super important, but there is a big backlog in BPSST, so the help is going to take time incoming,” said Schmautz. “That piece of it is why we can’t do what we have been doing again, which is losing people and having hiring freezes. But we are very encouraged. Getting a lot of great people coming in and we are getting a lot of people in. We got to get them trained and on the street.”

Following growing crime in the Rockwood community in Gresham, DA Mike Schmidt announced additional funding will be providing a prosecutor specifically to that neighborhood. The position will be ready next year.

After several shootings outside Portland schools this school year, officials also announced they were in talks to potentially bring back School Resource Officers, or SROs, to Portland Public Schools.

“I have had some discussions with PPS around what we can do to help keep children safe in the short term, but there are also probably longer term conversations that we have just started around what a return to schools might look like,” said Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, a former SRO himself. “It’s very early in those discussions, but in response to the shooting at Jefferson, we did give them additional officer resources to be in the area and help keep kids safe there. The most recent incident I reached out to PPS directly after that incident. I reached out to the principal yesterday. We are very mindful of the need to keep our kids safe in the school setting and we’re excited to have any discussions that might potentially lead to a return of officers in schools.”

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In response, Portland Public Schools provided Fox 12 with a statement saying:

“PPS looks forward to continued discussions with the Portland Police Bureau. We are committed to keeping our schools safe, while working collaboratively with our students and members of our community to find a solution to the senseless gun violence.”