In Portland, Oregon, the police chief recently pulled detectives from cold case and assault units to backfill the homicide unit, which is overwhelmed by a spike in gun violence
George, right, and Carolyn Spaulding hold an old family photo showing their son, Brian, in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Five years after Brian's parents found him fatally shot in the home he shared with roommates, his slaying remains a mystery that seems increasingly unlikely to be solved as Portland police confront a spike in killings and more than 100 officer vacancies. PORTLAND, Ore.
Departments are scrambling to recruit in a tight labor market and also rethinking what services they can provide and what role police should play in their communities. Many have shifted veteran officers to patrol, breaking up specialized teams built over decades in order to keep up with 911 calls. Portland logged a record 89 homicides last year — roughly three times its historical average — and is on pace to top that this year after already tallying more than 50. A report completed for the city last month by the California Partnership for Safe Communities found it had the largest homicide rate increase among similarly sized cities and 75% of homicides in 2020 were by gun. The city has seen nearly 800 shootings this year.
“There’s a lot of evidence that something bigger is going on than the social justice protests that happened, and it’s probably more than one thing,” said Struhl, whose center has worked with Baltimore, Philadelphia and Oakland to reduce gun violence. After King's shooting, three more people were injured and two killed by gunfire in the same area over a four-day span.
For now, eight officers patrol a city of 115,000 people on a typical evening shift and must constantly make decisions about how to deploy limited resources. But what law enforcement says is a staffing crisis could actually be a case of misdirected resources, said Christy Lopez, co-director of Georgetown Law School’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety.
“There may be some places where we need more police, but I’m fairly convinced from the evidence that I’ve seen over the decades that that can’t be the answer everywhere.”
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'We're triaging': Cops combat violent crime as ranks dwindlePORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Five years after Brian Spaulding’s parents found him fatally shot in the home he shared with roommates, his slaying remains a mystery that seems increasingly unlikely to be solved as Portland, Oregon, police confront a spike in killings and more than 100 officer vacancies.
Read more »
'We're triaging': Cops combat violent crime as ranks dwindleIn Portland, Oregon, the police chief recently pulled detectives from cold case and assault units to backfill the homicide unit, which is overwhelmed by a spike in gun violence
Read more »
'We're triaging': Cops combat violent crime as ranks dwindle in US citiesIn major American cities, police departments are losing officers and can't find enough recruits to replace them. Pandemic burnout, budget cuts and anti-police protests after George Floyd's murder have combined
Read more »
Families turn up for 8th annual Clothesline Project hosted by Cops for CommunityTo help the community get ready for the school year, Anchorage Police Department employees hosted the 8th annual Clothesline Project on Saturday.
Read more »
Why do cops with dubious track records keep finding new jobs?OPINION: As seemingly incompetent officers bounce from one police department to the next, their backgrounds often go unchecked.
Read more »