This message comes with support by unanimous vote at the King Neighborhood Association’s meeting September 8th, 2010. We, the members of the KNA, are extremely concerned about recent gang activity and violence in our neighborhood, and are dismayed to report yet another incidence of gunfire that occurred at NE 10th and Alberta on September 6th.

While, fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt during that time, the incident brought to light some disheartening facts. First let me state the members of this association applaud and sincerely appreciate the valiant work our local Portland Police officers do on a daily basis. This being said, we are very concerned about the safety of our community, and the weakening of police services to our area, which seems to have been plagued with incidences of unrest in recent months. Specifically we’d like to call to your attention two issues:

1) Officer response times. Several citizens called 911 at the onset of the incident, when several young adults engaged in combat in the street. Police did not arrive on the scene until several calls had been made, from different sources. What began as a verbal conflict escalated into gunshots fired in the air. We understand that officers are now, at times, spread thin in order to cover broadened territory and realize this may contribute to delayed response times; however, in this case a more timely police response might have prevented the incident in question from worsening into gunfire. This leads us to our second concern.

2) Lack of 24-hour staffing at the North Precinct. It is our understanding that between the hours of 1:00-7:00 am District 630 within the North Precinct is not staffed with an on-duty officer. Officers that are called to the area may need to travel some distance to tend to the situation. One police officer responding to the shooting last Monday was quoted as saying, “It’s crazy since so much goes on in this district.” Evidence of gang related activity appears to be growing in this neighborhood with signs of tagging, obvious drug deals in broad daylight and shootings, of which this incident is just one of several in the last 2 months. In light of these facts it seems vital to ensure that the North Precinct has consistent and stable 24-hour staffing.

We ask you, Mayor Adams, as Police Commissioner, to adequately staff the North Precinct to allow our hard-working police officers to be able to respond to urgent situations faster, at all hours of the day, without having to travel vast distances across the North Precinct’s coverage area. We call attention to what appears to be increased gang and violent activity in the North/Northeast part of the city. We again thank the police officers in our area and all over Portland for their tireless and continuing efforts.