PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland’s new police chief never wanted to be a cop. Jami Resch grew up in Beaverton and graduated from Beaverton High School and the University of Portland.
“If you were to go back and say 25 years ago – you're going to be a Portland police officer– I'd a been like, 'I want to be a doctor!' But it ended up great and I'm really glad that I ended up with the career that I did,” she said.
After spending her entire career with the Portland Police Bureau, Resch is well aware of the challenges faced by the city including more than 400 shooting incidents last year.
She wants more focus on stopping the, mostly, young people involved.
“So, when someone is identified as being at-risk, the police bureau can then hand them off to a group that can really, I like to say, can wrap around (them) completely, and hopefully prevent that shooting from occurring. So, that's what we're going to be focusing on, the intervention piece,” said Chief Resch.
She is also familiar with the high number of people on Portland’s streets who have mental health issues. Police are often the first responders when things go wrong.
“I have worked with many mental health workers over my career. They are some of the most compassionate, caring people who do a job that often times isn’t highly paid and they do it because they have a calling for it,” said Resch. “There are not enough of them. And there are not enough of the resources they can provide. And that's what I’m going to be pushing for, is more resources to adequately address the needs of people we're responding to."
KGW asked Resch how she would work to solve Portland's problem.
“Well, the Portland police are not going to solve the homeless problem. We are going to be a very good partner in trying to address the homeless problem. But that’s what we are. We are a partner,” said Chief Resch.
The Portland Police Bureau is often short-staffed. The chief said that's because hiring pushes are inconsistent.
“We're facing some retirement bubbles that don't have hiring bubbles behind them. And so our staffing is going to continue to go down until we reach what I anticipate to be, around the first couple months of next year, will probably be the lowest. And then you're going to see us start to pull back out of that,” said Chief Resch.
About that end of career thing. When asked about her predecessors and the ending of their tenures as chief, Resch said she wants to be the chief for the long haul.
"I know that we have rotated through chiefs throughout my career. That is not my intent. As I’ve told people, I have five years left until I’m eligible to retire. I would love to be able to continue in this position. I think it’s really important for the bureau to have a long-term chief. I think it’s really important for the community to have a long term chief,” said Chief Jami Resch.