PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Police Bureau’s Gun Violence Reduction Team is leading the investigation into a shooting that left five people injured early Sunday morning.
It happened at a private party at the Audio Cinema building on Southeast Madison Street. Witnesses described it as a chaotic scene. A stampede of people running and screaming.
Ian Ondrejcak, who works in the building and saw the shooter said the Gun Violence Reduction Team was the first to respond. He said shootings like the one Sunday morning show there’s a need for this team.
“You're asking a police force to disband and go back to traffic units, when obviously there's an issue when you have a 19-year-old looking kid shooting up an entire event that's an all-ages party that there's supposed to be no alcohol, no drugs,” he said. “Supposed to be an event that brings the community together, not breaks it apart.”
About two weeks ago, Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty called for the gun violence reduction team to be disbanded. She says the 28 officers should be moved back to patrol rather than form a team that she says has been known to racially profile.
“What we need are police that are able to interact with the community in a way that's respectful to all community members and what we need are law enforcement officers who are not targeting people based on what they look like, their economic status,” Hardesty said. “What we need are officers who know the community, know how to engage the community, so that we're all safer.”
The team used to be called the gang enforcement team. Hardesty says changing the name is not enough.
“Every community member's concerned about gun violence, I don’t think we need a specialized team for that, especially if the exact same officers who were focused on gang activity and didn't do a good job with that, right? Why would I expect them to be better at identifying guns than they were at identifying gangs?” Hardesty said.
Those in favor of the Gun Violence Reduction Team, however, point to the high number of shooting calls each month.
Portland police said there were 32 shootings in March and 29 in April. They say statistics show reports of shots fired are down 28% since the team moved from gang-related shootings to all shooting cases in the city.
Hardesty says she hasn’t seen any evidence that is a direct result of the team. Her proposal to disband the team may be up for discussion Wednesday as the commission plans to vote on the mayor’s new budget.