A crowd of people gathered into Life Fellowship Church on North Lombard Street to express that their discontent with the closure of the North Portland Police Precinct. Photo by Jake Thomas
Jake Thomas
jthomas@portlandobserver.com
Just half year after the city merged the North Portland Police Precinct with the Northeast Precinct for cost saving purposes, residents are still uneasy with the change and feel that their community is less secure.
Last night, residents gathered at the Life Fellowship Church on North Lombard Street to express their concerns about the issue to the top brass who oversee safety issues in the city, including Police Chief Rosie Sizer, Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman, Multnomah County District Prosecutor Mike Shrunk, and North Portland Police Jim Ferraris.
As the crowd trickled in, an overhead projector displayed a quote from Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the London Metropolitan Police Force, which read, “The police are the public, and the public are the police.”
Chris Duffy, the chair of the Arbor Lodge Neighborhood, moderated the event taking questions from the audience.
“We want to be a solution to the problems we are facing,” she said, before turning the microphone over to Sizer.
Sizer makes the case that things haven’t changed all that much since the precinct closure and trends are overall positive. Photo by Jake Thomas
Sizer described the process leading up to the precinct closure as a “painful conversation,” but hoped that the audience would keep in mind that there had been positive advancements in public safety and that not much had changed since the restructuring which was completed last summer.
Crime across Oregon has been dropping for years, and north Portland has been no exception, she said while bringing up statistics on the overhead projector to make her case.
She also pointed out that more people are looking to the police bureau for employment with the down economy.
“A bad economy is a good sign for police hiring,” said Sizer, who added that the bureau was at almost full staffing.
Ferraris told the audience that the number of officers for the area once covered by North Precinct was about the same, and the police were largely meeting their goal of responding to calls within five minutes.
However, there have been a few blips in what have been otherwise relatively positive trends.
Ferraris said that the area had seen an uptick in burglaries and car theft, but that these were largely due to two prolific criminals who had been taken off the street. After one suspect was arrested burglaries in the area dropped by 76 percent, he said.
Both Saltzman and Shrunk pointed out that crime has been going down despite the bad economy, which they, in part, attributed to citizen involvement.
But this didn’t satisfy the residents in attendance.
During the question and answer session, a number of residents, writing in their questions on pieces of paper that were read by Duffy, said that they’ve seen less of a police presence in their neighborhoods and have had a harder time getting service.
One business owner on Lombard said that they used to see a police cruiser roll by several times a day. Now they only see one once a week.
Another business owner had a break in, and had a frustrating time getting an officer to come by.
One resident in the Kenton Neighborhood called in after their home was broken into and was flatly told that there was no officer available.
“Where are our north Portland officers?” questioned one resident.
Several other questions noted that they are more likely to hear police sirens or buildings vandalized than officers on patrol.
“If you don’t feel like you’re getting good service, there’s a couple of avenues available to you,” said Saltzman, who pointed out that citizens can directly call precinct commanders.
The bureau is looking at a 2 percent cut for the next budget that will be considered by City Council this spring. Each official said that it was important for people to come out and make sure that the council understands that they want to make sure that this service is funded.
