Portland police admit drug addiction can't be solved with more arrests
The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) admitted in a statement released Tuesday that Multnomah County’s drug addiction troubles are much more complex and cannot be solved solely by law enforcement activity.
“We have long maintained that we cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” read a statement by the bureau.
“(Portland police have) been doing (their) part to try to tackle this problem for a long time and we’ll continue to do it,” read the statement.
Recent deflection programs designed to assist users out of their addiction can be a tool used alongwith arresting dealers, according to the bureau statement.
Three months into the re-criminalization of drugs in Oregon, the state's most populated county has made roughly the same amount of drug possession arrests as significantly smaller neighboring counties.
According to a real-time data dashboard published by Oregon's Criminal Justice Commission, Multnomah County, with a population of 789,698, has arrested 273 people since the state's new drug laws took effect on Sept. 1. Washington County, with a population of 598,865, has arrested the same number of people, whereas Clackamas County, with a population of 423,173, has arrested 224 people.
The PPB has been responsible for the vast majority of those arrest, 212. During a bi-monthly media call about Multnomah County's re-criminalization rollout, the county deferred to law enforcement when questioned about the lagging arrest rate by population size.
PPB provided a written statement noting that addiction is a multifaceted issue.
"PPB conducts targeted enforcement missions routinely that can result in either arrests or deflection. That said, these are complex problems that cannot be solved by enforcement alone. There are deep-seated systemic issues that lead to addiction and the associated livability issues that widespread addiction creates," the statement read. "Arresting drug dealers and putting users in deflection are the tools that law enforcement has, and as we’ve said, we are using those tools! PPB will continue to work with our community to address this problem, and we hope that other parts of the criminal justice and social services systems will look for what tools they have at their disposal to help disrupt these cycles."
Out of all 36 Oregon counties, Jackson County has had the highest number of arrests. The county has made 440 total drug possession arrests with a population of 220,768. Most of those arrests were made by the Medford Police Department (MPD).
MPD was not immediately able to provide context but promised a response within the next 48 hours. This article will be updated when that response is received.
When passing the law that re-criminalized drugs in Oregon lawmakers also set aside roughly $20 million to distribute to counties to set up programs that would allow people charged with possession to deflect away from the criminal justice system and into treatment. Counties were allowed to opt in or out of the programs, decide how they wanted to structure their programs, and determine their launch date. Eight Oregon Counties opted out (Sherman, Jefferson, Wheeler, Douglas, Coos, Curry, and Lake Counties).
People arrested for simple possession without any other co-occurring crimes can be sentenced to a maximum of 30 days in jail. Many counties already have drug courts and diversion programs where judges may reduce sentences and/or charges with the condition that the defendant agrees to treatment. Deflection programs are offered before charges are filed thus circumventing the need for the person to enter the justice system. Most counties have chosen to hold charges in abeyance, meaning if deflection conditions are not met, the District Attorney would file charges.
In Multnomah County, charges are not held in abeyance. The only consequences for people who fail deflection are a 30-day probationary period after they fail deflection, after which they would not be eligible for deflection again, and could be charged if they are caught with drugs.
People with pending charges and co-occurring crimes in the county do not qualify for deflection.
Of the 273 people arrested in Multnomah County, 127 have entered deflection. The county will not release any success data from its program until February 2025.
From Sept. 1 to Oct. 14, the county offered deflection through mobile teams that met police at the jail or the site of an arrest. On Oct. 14, the county opened its Coordinated Care Pathway Center. That is where most of the deflections take place.
Since it opened, the center has seen 74 deflection clients, 20 of whom chose not to initiate deflection after being taken there by police. This means they declined to be screened for Substance Use Disorder and therefore failed deflection after leaving the center. Those individuals will not qualify for deflection for another 30 days. The county will release data about how many have been arrested within that probationary 30-day period in February.
The CJC reports that 282 people statewide have entered deflection as of Nov. 4. Success rates statewide are still being underreported to the CJC by counties according to a data presentation provided by OHSU to members of CJCs Deflection Grant Review Committee in a public meeting on Nov. 15.
One data point the CJC is tracking is the housing status of people in deflection. According to that presentation, 156 of the 282 people in deflection reported sleeping in a tent.
The presentation also noted that the biggest reason why people arrested for possession did not qualify for deflection was that they had been cited for failure to appear in court. The most common co-occurring crime alongside possession is trespassing according to that presentation.
