Portland needs to fully fund Portland Street Response citywide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Within 60 days, I would require the plan and budget and complete the expansion within one year. At the same time, let’s implement the 911 call-allocation recommendations so police and Portland Street Response are sent to the calls they are equipped to handle. Fill the police positions already funded, then stop sending armed officers to welfare checks that do not require a police response, routine unattended deaths and repeat false alarms. Reassign the recovered officer hours to emergency response and investigations before promising a broad staffing expansion.
Camp Removals
When the City, like in a camp sweep, causes the disruption, it has an obligation to fix it. If a camp creates an immediate safety or access problem, removal may be necessary. But people need somewhere real to go, and the City cannot destroy existing connections to services in the process – a key tenet of my Continuity of Care proposal.
