Nearly two-thirds of likely Oregon voters believe the state’s criminal justice system isn’t tough enough, according to a new poll commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
That compares to nearly a fifth who believe Oregon is appropriately tough on crime, only 6% who think the system is too tough and 12% who said they were unsure, according to the poll of 600 likely voters conducted by Portland-based DHM Research on Sept. 23 and 24. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points and voters were chosen statewide to match the likely demographics of Oregon’s turnout.
The belief that Oregon’s criminal justice system is too soft spanned geographic regions, with respondents in the Portland metro area, those in the Willamette Valley and those elsewhere in the state lining up at 63%, 64% and 65%, respectively. Younger voters were far more likely to see the system as “too tough,” with a fifth of voters 18 to 29 indicating that compared with only 1% of voters over 65.
Poll respondents pointed to crime and public safety as a top concern, with nearly one in six naming that as the most important problem facing Oregon. Only homelessness, which one in three voters identified as the most pressing issue in Oregon, ranked higher. When asked how important crime is to their decision in the governor’s race, 93% said it is important, including 70% who called it “very important.”
Overall, respondents said they felt good about their local police departments and the Oregon State Police, although those results showed notable differences by age, race and region.
Voters are less satisfied with local district attorneys, however, the poll found.
Fully 70% of respondents said they felt “very confident” or “somewhat confident” about their local police departments and the Oregon State Police. But confidence in policing in the Portland metro area was slightly lower, with 61% saying they feel “very confident” or “somewhat” confident in their local police, compared with 74% in the Willamette Valley and 77% in the rest of the state.
Older respondents were more likely to have favorable opinions of police. Among respondents 18 to 29, 57% felt “very confident” or “somewhat confident” about their police departments. Meanwhile, 80% of respondents over 65 felt that way.
Differences cut across race too, with 72% of white respondents expressing full or partial confidence in local police compared with 58% of non-white respondents.
Some respondents who said they lacked confidence in the Portland Police Bureau said they felt frustrated by officers’ inability to respond to reports of alleged crime.
Bill Carter is a 60-year-old Democrat from Southeast Portland who works as a security guard and said he intends to vote for unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson for governor. Johnson is running against Democrat Tina Kotek and Republican Christine Drazan.
Carter said he lacks confidence in the Portland Police Bureau because officers don’t come through for him when he stops shoplifters on the job. If he calls 911, officers likely won’t arrive in time to do anything to help, he said.
“I believe in their abilities,” Carter said. “The problem is they’re understaffed.”
When it comes to their local district attorney, only 45% of respondents expressed confidence. That percentage was slightly lower in the Portland area, 41%.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, in particular, has drawn the scorn of some national and Oregon Republicans since 2020 when he said amid nightly protests for racial justice that he would focus on prosecuting more serious protest-related crimes and overlook lower-level offenses such as interfering with a peace officer. In a visit to Oregon earlier this year, U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted but did not name district attorneys in certain cities who he said have declined to prosecute low-level crimes.
However, voters also appear to know less about their elected district attorneys than their local police departments. About 19% of likely Oregon voters did not know enough about their district attorney to form an opinion. By comparison, only 3% of voters said they didn’t know how confident they were about their local police department.
One respondent who could form an opinion of the DA was Noelle Diaz, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom who said she is “not too confident” in Schmidt. A Democrat, Diaz moved to Southwest Portland from San Francisco two years ago and said it feels as if crime in Portland has gotten progressively worse in her time here.
She has taken note of instances when criminal suspects have been released from jail and then allegedly committed new crimes, and she said she wonders about the role of the district attorney’s office in those instances.
“There’s just a huge feeling of lawlessness,” she said.
— Beth Slovic; bslovic@oregonian.com; @bethslovic; 503-221-8551
Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe
Ad Choices