Last week, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced that his proposed budget will include a $3.9M investment to expand Public Safety Support Specialists (PS3) staffing and operations.
According to Wheeler, the investment would add 28 Public Safety Support Specialists to the police bureau, increasing the number of unarmed employees handling low-level calls for service. The mayor’s office said the agency currently has 20 PS3s, is hiring 2 more, and the mayor will propose an ordinance in May to move funding for 12 more from contingency funding. In addition, the funding will allocate $1.3 million for PS3 supervisors and cars.
“The Portland Police Bureau was understaffed when I was first elected in 2016, and it’s even more critically understaffed today. We need to reimagine public safety to find immediate solutions that will make Portland safer. This means getting creative in the way that we address crime and rethinking the role of those who protect our city,” Wheeler said.
These unarmed officers respond to lower priority calls, allowing sworn-officers to focus on more serious criminal activity. The data on this is extremely promising. A recent study found that a PS3 officer can save 4.6 hours of patrol officer time per shift.
In addition, Mayor Wheeler will also propose increasing the number of Park Rangers to patrol Portland’s numerous parks and facilities. Also unarmed, Park Rangers have the authority to protect city-owned land by monitoring parks and issuing citations.
