Police in Portland, Oregon, made the first arrests under a new ordinance regulating camping on public land, but the county jail refused to take the suspect into custody.
It’s the latest blow to city officials’ efforts to crack down on rampant homeless camps.
“I am disappointed in the sheriff’s decision to decline to prosecute those arrested for violating the law,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “I am deeply concerned about this disconnect and how it will impact future efforts to improve public safety.”
Portland’s new camping regulations went into effect July 1. The ordinance makes people who refuse to provide a place to stay subject to up to seven days in jail, but the county jail refused to detain a man accused of violating the law last week. (Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Crisis in the Northwest: A trip inside Oregon’s largest homeless camp with a former drug dealer
Last Friday, officers arrested the man after he repeatedly refused offers of shelter, including a tiny house, a Portland Police Bureau spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Officers took him to a downtown jail, but he was released after officers refused to take him into custody.
Portland’s two jails are run by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), said Lt. John Prock, a spokesman for the department. Willamette Week Jail officials do not detain people arrested for violating city rules, only those accused of misdemeanors or felonies under state law.
The policy is based on a directive issued by Sheriff Nicole Morrissey O’Donnell in August 2023, Prock said.
‘Law and Order’ Voters Welcome the Firing of Progressive Oregon District Attorney
This came as a surprise to city officials, including the mayor, who said his office has met with Morrissey O’Donnell and her team “several times over the past year and a half” to get input on the city’s public camping laws.
“Sheriff’s representatives have publicly stated that arrest restrictions have been lifted,” Wheeler said in a statement, “clearly this is not the case.”
“We ask the sheriff to reconsider his position,” Wheeler said in a statement.
MCSO did not respond to emailed questions from Fox News Digital, but Morrissey O’Donnell issued a statement Tuesday denying that her office has ever agreed to prosecute people arrested for violating city ordinances.
“As an elected official tasked with managing our prisons, I believe we must utilize our correctional facilities as a place for those who pose a real danger to the public, and that does not include individuals whose only crime is living without a home,” Morrissey O’Donnell said in a statement.
Tents are pitched in a vacant lot near Steel Bridge in Portland, Oregon, on July 7, 2023. Portland’s new rules prohibit camping on public land if there is “access to adequate alternative shelter.” The ordinance also prohibits people from making fires, using gas heaters, causing environmental damage or erecting structures in campgrounds. It also requires all belongings to be kept within two feet of a tent. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
‘Endless revolving door’: Democrats would recriminalize drugs, but one key official is looking for loopholes
Oregon’s homeless population has skyrocketed in recent years, and the crisis is most evident in the state’s largest cities, where tents, campers and campsites dot sidewalks, parks and other open areas.
The Portland City Council approved a daytime camping ban last year, but a lawsuit blocked its implementation on the grounds that it violated state law.
Then in May, commissioners unanimously approved new time, place and manner restrictions that would prohibit people from camping on public land if “suitable alternative shelter” is available. Under the ordinance, anyone who declines an offer of shelter could be fined $100, jailed for seven days, or both.
Even if there is no shelter available, the ordinance prohibits camping in areas that block access to sidewalks, businesses or private property.
The city has conducted more than 3,600 on-site inspections since the ordinance went into effect on July 1. The majority of campers the city has approached have accepted shelter offers or are otherwise complying with the regulations, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital.
Friday’s arrest was the first since the ordinance went into effect, according to Willamette Week, and the mayor’s office emphasized that outreach workers had multiple contacts with the man at the campground before the city reported the incident to police.
Click here to get the FOX News app
Portland officials, including Wheeler, have long expressed frustration with state laws and other legal barriers that hinder the city’s ability to address issues such as homeless camps and open drug use.
Oregon plans to re-criminalize drug possession starting Sept. 1. People caught with drugs will be able to choose between jail or a locally run drug diversion program, but Wheeler said he now worries about what the sheriff’s policy means for people who refuse to divert from drugs.
The sheriff’s office has budgeted for 1,130 beds in the two jails. I warned you before Overcrowding can lead to inmate releases: The average daily inmate population has been at or below about 80% of capacity since the sheriff’s August 2023 directive, according to MCSO data.
