The understaffed department is also facing a steep rise in gun violence.
Over the last year, the Portland Police Bureau spent at least $12.4 million in taxpayer money responding to mass demonstrations and violent riots in the Oregon city, according to police officials and a National Review analysis of police bureau records.
More than half of that total, or at least $6.9 million, was incurred in the first month of mass gatherings and riots. Since July 1, 2020, the beginning of the fiscal year, police have spent an additional $5.5 million responding to various demonstrations, according to a police spokesman. The bulk of the spending has been for overtime pay for officers, but it also includes things like office supplies, gas, equipment rentals and food.
The tab started growing on May 29, 2020, when demonstrators took to the streets in response to the in-custody killing of George Floyd more than 1,700 miles away in Minnesota. Around 11 p.m. that night, that initial gathering turned violent, with protesters smashing windows and starting fires inside the city’s Justice Center, breaking into and looting retail stores and a downtown mall, setting trash bins on fire, and tagging buildings with graffiti, according to local news reports. Less than an hour later, Portland police declared it a riot, the first of at least 35 riots in the city over the past year, according to police bureau timelines from 2020 and 2021.
There have been at least 145 demonstrations and mass gatherings in that time, and at least 1,007 arrests, though the charges in most cases were not prosecuted.
While mass demonstrations triggered by Floyd’s death ended after a few weeks in most American cities, in Portland they continued almost nightly into the fall. Since January, there has been more than one mass gathering – defined as a gathering of 50 or more people – per week in Portland, including at least five riots, according to police. April saw a noticeable uptick in demonstrations, with at least 12 mass gatherings, four of which were declared riots. During those demonstrations, protesters and rioters set fires, threw projectiles and vandalized property. During the riots, officers were regularly attacked with rocks, eggs, soup cans, and even firebombs, mortars, and fireworks, according to police accounts of the demonstrations.
City leaders and elected officials joined together in March to call for an end to the violence, destruction, and intimidation by far-left activists and anarchists. In April, Mayor Ted Wheeler called the demonstrators a “group of 100 or so largely white, self-described anarchists who engage in the criminal destruction of our economy and our confidence.” Wheeler was forced to move out of his Portland apartment last summer after rioters set fire to the building’s lobby.
Reporting by National Review last fall found that the protests included people with a variety of motivations, including self-identified socialists, anarchists and Antifa members, as well as trans activists, angry moms and disaffected young people struggling with mental illness.
Last month, the Portland City Council approved $250,000 in new grants to help small businesses repair damages from the riots. Portland has already paid more than $720,000 to 135 businesses through a fund created to assist with repairs amid the coronavirus pandemic and the continued unrest. The City Council also reallocated $150,000 for extra graffiti removal across the city.
In addition to the rioting, Portland police are facing a steep rise in gun violence: There were 347 shootings in the city from January 1 to April 30, nearly eclipsing the total for the whole of 2019, which saw 393 shootings. That number jumped to roughly 900 shootings in 2020. The surge in gun violence and civil disorder has also been accompanied by a staffing shortage; the department is roughly 100 officers short of what they deem “authorized strength.” A number of retiring cops cited “burnout” from the near-nightly riots as their reason for leaving the force, according to a local CBS affiliate.
While Portland is often portrayed in the media as an anti-police, progressive metropolis that wants to slash police budgets or eliminate police entirely, a recent survey by The Oregonian/Oregon Live found that about 75 percent of people who live in Portland and the surrounding area reject the “defund the police” movement. The poll suggests that Portland residents support law, order and safety in their community.