Portland, Oregon – The Rose City’s addiction crisis is evident not only in the burnt foil and unconscious drug users downtown, but also in the city’s graffiti. A meth pipe graffitied on the sidewalk. The word “Hondos” was scrawled on the wall with circles and diagonal lines above it, possibly a reference to the Honduran cartel accused of funneling fentanyl into Portland.
“As a force, we’re always trying to disrupt the fentanyl trade, because a lot of the crimes and complaints that we get here in the region and downtown are all connected to fentanyl,” said David Portland Police. Mr Baer said. He said.
Portland Police Officer David Baer responds to an incident in downtown Portland on January 11, 2024. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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On a rainy afternoon in January, the Portland Police Bureau’s central precinct, which spans 41 square miles in downtown Portland, was down more than 50 percent. Dozens of calls were waiting to be answered.
“Our shifts are a minimum of 18 officers,” Baer said. “Currently, we have eight officers stationed throughout the Central Precinct.”
But Oregon State Police troopers were also downtown, providing some relief to local police officers as part of an ongoing partnership aimed at cleaning up the city.
Gov. Tina Kotek last fall directed OSP to send officers to Portland to help local law enforcement track down and bust fentanyl dealers. Beyer, who is part of PPB’s bicycle team, said he has doubled, and he even tripled, the amount of work his crew can do as a team.
“It’s really helped. It’s definitely reduced the open drug dealing that was really rampant in the summer,” he said, attributing the improvement to the efforts of PPB and OSP.
Last fall, Gov. Tina Kotek diverted some Oregon State Police officers to Portland, where they have been helping local law enforcement track down and arrest fentanyl dealers and respond to other crimes. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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Fentanyl became prevalent in Oregon around 2018. Since then, overdose deaths attributed to synthetic opioids have jumped 533% in Multnomah County, according to local health officials.
Downtown Portland became the epicenter of the crisis.
Since October, bicycle police officers, state troopers and undercover agents have arrested dozens of people, seized weapons and taken thousands of fentanyl pills off the streets. Baer said state and local police are investigating dealers who are “middle management and above,” meaning they are most likely to be armed and involved in the downtown shootings.
“We want to make downtown livable for people who live here and come here to recreate,” Baer said. “And we want to make drug traffickers feel uncomfortable, especially those who are going to carry guns for drug trafficking crimes.”
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Baer said that while police are focusing on the drug trade, stopping drug use in public is more difficult.
Three years ago, Oregon decriminalized possession of a user’s equivalent amount of drugs. Currently, police officers simply write drug users a $100 ticket and give them a phone number to call if they want treatment or simply to avoid a fine. Most people encountered don’t pay a fine or call a hotline, according to data from the Oregon Department of Justice.
Portland leaders have tried to crack down on public drug use and ban camping in downtown areas, but they are often thwarted by state law and court challenges. The city’s ban on public drug use is stalled until the state Legislature passes a new drug use law, which Wheeler and others hope will happen during the short session that began Monday.
“I have a zero-tolerance policy for the sale, distribution, or even use of drugs on the street,” Wheeler said. “But we also want to bring people together and help them.”
The city recently piloted a program that combines police officers and social workers to improve support for people struggling with addiction. Wheeler and Baer both welcomed the partnership, saying it helped get people off the streets and connected to services.
Oregon State Police have charged a woman with drug use in public in downtown Portland on January 11, 2024. She said she wanted to get treatment for her addiction, so police contacted peer support specialists through a new pilot program and waited with her until they finished their treatment. she arrived. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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“Everything that our team is responsible for managing and making sure we know where it is. [treatment] Are there beds available, where are the spots available, what are the criteria? Frankly, it was too much,” Baer said.
Now, if a police officer sees someone using drugs in public and wants to seek treatment, they can call a service provider and, ideally, respond within 10 minutes. You can take over the response.
Wheeler said the program, which started several months ago, is showing “very good progress.”
This is a cultural shift in the city, and in 2020, activists and some residents called for defunding the police department. The city rolled out Portland Street Response the following year, sending mental health workers and paramedics to call for nonviolence in hopes of reducing the number of victims. Police interactions with people in crisis.
Officer Donnie Mathews approaches a man acting erratically in Portland’s Chinatown neighborhood on January 11, 2024. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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Wheeler acknowledged initial resistance from some social workers who “didn’t want to work with police officers.”
“Right now they are working together very well,” he said. “I think they all understand that they share the same values. They’re all addressing this drug addiction crisis from a humanitarian perspective. And I literally… I just got back from a rally where social workers praised the police officers assigned to them.” Little details like this. ”
For more information on Mr. Baer and Mr. Wheeler, click here.
