September 27, 2010

Dear Members of the King Neighborhood Association:

Chief Reese received your September 9th letter to Mayor Adams and asked me to respond to you. First, I appreciate the fact that you are asking questions of your police department. It is important that we communicate freely and transparently, so that the Police Bureau can give our community the best service possible. We also appreciate the support given by the residents of the King Neighborhood. North Precinct has long enjoyed a productive and positive relationship with the King Neighborhood.

As to your concern about officer response times, the Police Bureau’s goal for arrival on emergency or priority calls for service is five minutes or less from the time a police unit is dispatched on a call. I asked our Crime Analysis Unit to look at response times in the King Neighborhood from January 2010 through September 2010. Overall, the numbers suggest that we are meeting that goal. For example, our average response time for emergency 911 calls for service in District 630 during that period is 3.5 minutes.

Looking into the incident described in your letter, I believe that it occurred on Monday, September 6, 2010, and involved a call about a large group of people fighting in the street at NE 9th and Alberta and that multiple shots had been fired. In reviewing the call records, this particular call was received at 9:08 pm resulting in officers being immediately dispatched. The first of more than ten police units arrived on scene at 9:10 pm, within two minutes after the call was dispatched. Officers remained on scene after an arrest was made, conducting an investigation until nearly midnight. In addition, police units had responded to that location on two disturbance calls within the hour preceding the fight/shooting call; in those two cases, no one wanted police contact so officers cleared those calls.

I would like to address your second concern about the perception of a lack of twenty-four hour staffing at North Precinct. As a direct result of last year’s precinct restructure, there are now more police officers assigned to patrol the neighborhoods of the “new” North Precinct than previously when the “old” North and Northeast Precincts existed. Police officers are on duty twenty four hours a day in the North Precinct patrol districts. While there are twenty patrol districts that define North Precinct’s territory, not every district is filled every shift of every day. These patrol districts are filled commensurate with call load and activity. That said, staffing will increase and decrease dependent on time of day and calls for service. In other words, during peak call times, more patrol districts are filled or concentrated to cover a smaller geographic area with more officers to handle the increased call load. During lighter call load periods, such as the period of 1:00 am to 7:00 am, patrol districts are expanded or cover a larger geographic area with fewer officers to cover the decreased call load.

While District 630 may not be a consistently assigned district because of a reduced call load from 1:00 am to 7:00 am, officers from neighboring patrol districts are expected to patrol that area within the staffing model described above. I have reviewed the officer activity for District 630 during those hours for the month of August. I found several dozen self initiated activities logged by officers in District 630 from 1:00 am to 7:00 am. That tells me that officers are present and active in your neighborhood. Let me assure you, North Precinct has consistent and stable police staffing to provide police service to our neighborhoods.

I hope I have adequately addressed your concerns. I am happy to attend a future monthly meeting of the King Neighborhood Association to answer any further questions residents may have, in addition to our patrol officers and Neighborhood Response Team officers who attend. I can be reached at (503) 823-5700 or by email at jim.ferraris@portlandoregon.gov.

Sincerely,
JAMES C. FERRARIS
Commander
North Precinct