Portland commissioner addresses frustrations over crime, lack of response from city leaders

By SARAH HURWITZ

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — As Portlanders continue to raise concerns about crime, homeless issues and a lack of response from city leaders, Portland City Commissioner Mingus Mapps is answering those frustrations.

FOX 12 spoke with the commissioner on Thursday about his vision for this year and his message to the community.

He recognized that break-ins of local businesses are not a priority right now because of staffing shortages in the Portland Police Bureau.

“You know we have a police bureau which is about two thirds of the size it should be for a city of Portland’s size, you know most cities the size of Portland have about 1,200 cops, we have about 800,” Mapps said. “That is one of the reasons why we are too slow to respond to some of these break-ins.”

That, and a record number of homicides Mapps says makes gun violence a top priority.

The commissioner says in the next year there are three key changes he believes will help stabilize the city’s underlying problems.

He says the city plans to hire more Portland Police officers, as well as hire unarmed officers called PS3s who can help with property crimes.

He says the city is also expanding the Portland Street Response program not only to east Portland but to downtown this spring.

“I also think that we need to do a much better job at getting people off the streets,” Mapps said. “You know if you take a look at the violence that we see out there, at least the gun violence — about one bucket of it can be attributed to gang violence, another bucket of it can be attributed to houseless folks and another bucket can be attributed to random violence.”

His goal is to get 1000 people off the streets by the end of 2022.

“All of that is going to make things better, but it’s going to take a little bit of time by time I mean by the end of this year I think we should be in a much better place,” Mapps said.

So what should Portlanders do in the meantime?

Mapps says community conversations and collaboration are where it starts for generating change in the city.

“The police can’t do this alone and indeed if you think about the kind of policing that I think Portlanders want it’s this collaborative community policing approach. I believe that we can move in that direction even at a time when resources are thin,” Mapps said. “I discourage vigilantism and indeed one of the things which is hurting us right now is the fact that there are so many guns out there in the community. So we need less of that and more proactive interventions to prevent violence from breaking out in the first place.”

Mapps also addressed the concerns from Portland business owners who feel unheard and say there’s been a lack of response from city leaders.

“I think they’re two pieces to this. Number one, do I understand people’s frustrations with the results they see on the streets? I sure do. And number two, when you reach out to city hall, should you get a response,” Mapps said. “I think that’s an absolute expectation that Portlanders are right to have.”

The commissioner also suggested for Portlanders to work with the city’s Community Safety Program which can offer tips to keep your business and neighbors safe.

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