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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| The Gateway Area Business Association announced the cancellation of the Fun-O-Rama Parade. The annual event also included a community fair and golf tournament held in May. The David Douglas Scots High School marching band performs in the 2002 parade. (click here for larger view) |
| MEMO PHOTOS: TIM CURRAN |
Under the proposal, Northeast Precinct at 445 N.E. Emerson St. would absorb North Precinct, with the old North Precinct building (the former St. Johns City Hall building when St. Johns was an independent city) relegated to training functions. Southeast Precinct would become home to the Traffic and Tactical Divisions, with patrol responsibilities for its area split between Central Precinct downtown and East Precinct. And some neighborhoods, including Parkrose, will be reassigned; in Parkrose’s case, to Northeast.
Chief Rosie Sizer defended the plan before an initially skeptical crowd at the Parkrose Business Association last month. Mayor Sam Adams, anticipating a major shortage in revenue, is asking all city bureaus to prepare cut packages reflecting budget reductions of 2.5 and 5 percent from their current funding levels. For police, this would mean a cut of between $3.5 million and $7 million. “We would have to cut a lot of people,” she said. They would also have to eliminate about half of the bureau’s 94 programs. The move, which moves the city back to the number of 1994-level precincts, will save $3 million a year in administrative salaries as top echelon positions are combined, and another $500,000 in rentals that will no longer be needed. Sizer said that hopefully there will be no need to cut patrol officers. “If we have to take a cut, and I believe we do, this (cutting the number of precincts) is the most appropriate way to do it.”
The reorganization is an attempt to even the workload among precincts and to better ensure that officers can get speedy backup when they need it. “It’s better to organize along east-west axes than north-south axes,” she said.
Wayne Stoll, PBA president, lamented, “It’s 5.7 miles to Northeast Precinct!”
Sizer replied, “Police officers don’t work out of offices; they work out of their cars. We don’t expect the response time to change. Essentially you’re unhappy because you love (East Precinct) so much. You’ll have the same number of patrol officers, not necessarily the same ones. We’re committed to maintaining the contact office (in Parkrose at Northeast 110th Ave. and Sandy Blvd.) which you did so much to make happen.”
Later at the meeting, East Precinct Commander Mike Crebs reported on his ongoing efforts to rein in prostitution on Northeast 82nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard. Because judges are now making it a condition of release that prostitutes not frequent these two streets, police have the same tools they had under the controversial prostitution-free zone. He also touted Trespass Agreements, whereby property owners are given permission to come onto private property and respond to any suspicious activity they see without obtaining a warrant or a specific request from the owner.
When people complained of seeing prostitutes on other streets, Crebs responded, “If we find that they’re moving somewhere else, we can call the judge. This is very flexible.” Judges would then have the authority to declare other streets off limits to prostitutes if they found them frequenting them, he said.
No longer a proposal, this precinct downsizing and realignment was adopted on a 3-0 vote by City Council last month, but won’t go into effect until they can ensure continued adequate response time for all areas. The Portland Police Bureau will release exact dates for the changes as they get them. The three-digit numbers are patrol districts; the radio overlay areas, indicated by hash marks, refer to patrol districts to be served by an additional radio network to ensure appropriate coverage during peak hours.
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