As someone living in Portland, I'll add to this that there's a general sense here that Street Response does a great job at handling these issues in a way that's both humane and efficient, while at the same time pretty much the entire city would agree that the police here have been intentionally both slow and unhelpful for years.
I think the biggest takeaway here is that having smaller organizations focused around specific areas, and that have legal intervention power but aren't inherently organized around violence, can help with public issues in statistically significant ways, and do it for cheap. PSR's budget is $12.6 million/year, compared to Portland police getting $249 million in 2023... and yet PSR by itself has reduced police dispatches by 3.2%, reduced fire department dispatches by 3.2%, dramatically cut down on the number of people taken to the hospital as a result of calls, and gets wildly positive reviews from both the general public and the people they respond to, who consider them extremely trustworthy compared to the police.
There are two problems in Portland that could benefit from focused non-police groups. I dont know if city could organize them or if police would allow them.
There has been big jump in murders since pandemic, mostly gang violence. Other cities have had success engaging with gang members and breaking the cycle of violence. Teams with trusted community members and social workers might have some success. Police probably wouldn’t work unlike cities where they are more trusted. Not sure if group should work with police to solve murder or if that hurt their position.
The other place would theft task force, probably inside police but staffed by non-officers. Taking reports would be sufficient but would be better if they could investigate and make cases, No need for armed police except for arrests.
On that second part, I think that Portland, like many other cities, would benefit tremendously if there was a legally empowered but non-police group that existed for after-the-fact fact-finding and record-keeping responses to crimes that have already occurred. Currently if a theft or robbery happens here, the police pretty much don't give a shit and will only even record it if you hassle them at length about it.
I think the biggest takeaway here is that having smaller organizations focused around specific areas, and that have legal intervention power but aren't inherently organized around violence, can help with public issues in statistically significant ways, and do it for cheap. PSR's budget is $12.6 million/year, compared to Portland police getting $249 million in 2023... and yet PSR by itself has reduced police dispatches by 3.2%, reduced fire department dispatches by 3.2%, dramatically cut down on the number of people taken to the hospital as a result of calls, and gets wildly positive reviews from both the general public and the people they respond to, who consider them extremely trustworthy compared to the police.