PORTLAND, Ore. — When Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced a gun violence emergency declaration in 2022, he said his goal was to reduce gun homicides and shootings in the city by at least 10% over the following two years — and new data shows Portland has hit that goal more than twice over.
The data presented at a city council work session on Tuesday showed that gun violence in Portland declined by 22% from 2022 to 2023.
"I am proud to say that the reductions in gun violence that we saw in 2023 tells us that we are on the right track," Wheeler said.
The emergency declaration called for a comprehensive gun violence reduction strategy with a "multi-discipline collaborative approach," according to Mike Myers, head of Portland's Community Safety Division.
The effort led to the creation of several community programs over the past two years, including the Ceasefire Program adopted last June, which helps identify people who are at the highest risk of gun violence, establish a relationship with them and offer them support programs.
"We want to make sure that those that are being impacted by gun violence are being served and those who are causing harm to the community are also being addressed," said Ceasefire director Sierra Ellis.
The data collected in 2022 and 2023 shows the largest decline in the homicide victim rate was among Black Portlanders, resulting in a 28% decline in gun violence that in turn represents 11 lives saved.
"I'm pretty excited, and I think the community is pretty excited about where we're going," said Terrance Hayes, who chairs the Focused Intervention Community Oversight Group (FITCOG).
The group works closely with the mayor's office and the Portland Police Bureau, evaluating the effectiveness of the bureau's gun violence response strategies through a racial and social lens.
"It means we can actually create a strategy and models that don't add harm to the community and actually reduce crime," Hayes said. "So when you talk about the heavy hand, they are not supposed to come in with the heavy hand. And we see that taking that heavy hand off — but still believing in enforcement and accountability — has actually worked."