The issue of police shootings in Portland is far from a back page issue. Some experts are still studying to see what effects the pandemic is having on violence in the city. Gun violence in Oregon is high across the board. The nation’s homicide rate appears to have dropped by as much as 5% in 2022. In Portland, police officers shot at nine people in 2022, killing four and injuring three. A fifth person was killed in Portland by a Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputy after a car chase that ended in the city limits. Statewide, the number of police shootings increased by five since 2021, while Portland police killed the same number of people.
The city had to exercise control over one of it’s police units. It disbanded the now infamous Gun Violence Reduction Team in June 2020. It then resurrected the Focused Intervention Team. However, at least eight officers on that team have shot at people on three different occasions in 2022. The Portland Police Bureau announced in December that the organization has over 800 sworn members for the first time in several months.
In 2021, Portland was one of at least a dozen U.S. cities that had a record number of homicides. In 2022, several of those cities saw double-digit declines while Portland once again set a record. After tallying at least 92 homicides in 2021 and shattering the previous record of 70 set in 1987, the city notched its 93rd homicide in November. As of Dec. 29, there had been 100 homicides and 1,292 shootings.
The record-setting police violence matches a nationwide trend, according to data collected by the Washington Post. Last year, police killed 1,055 people, the highest since the Post started tracking fatal police shootings in 2015. As of Dec. 20, 2022, it estimates the nation’s law enforcement will set another record with 1,069 deadly police shootings.
Portland mayor Ted Wheeler’s Safer Summer PDX initiative introduced the Focused Investment Group, a $2.7 million program tasked with intervening to “persuade those at highest risk of shooting not to shoot,” engaging at-risk youth, and investing in communities to “address environmental factors conducive to gun violence.” But, since December 2020, nearly 200 people have been killed in Portland.
