A deadly triple shooting in North Portland highlighted the tragic violence city leaders were so worried about when they rolled out a $500,000 plan to combat violence ahead of spring break and the summer late last week.
The latest effort follows a slight delay -- first highlighted in a KATU News investigation -- in a broader, multi-million dollar, two-year plan to hire 26 outreach workers to diffuse simmering tensions in the community and interrupt cycles of violence before police even respond to a scene.
For nearly three years, KATU has continually pressed city officials about what they’re doing to stop gun violence before it starts. That was our question once again: what is city leadership doing now to stop an expected spike in gun violence this spring and summer?
Myers highlighted a recent plan his office put together with the help of the mayor’s office -- the two offices found $500,000 that had gone unspent and repurposed it to cover outreach and intervention work starting right now. Five groups will get up to $100,000 each for their work.
KATU spoke with Community Safety Transition Director Mike Myers before the weekend’s deadly shooting.
“It’s in addition to all those dollars that are already out there. That's how serious we are about trying to keep gun violence down,” Myers said.
The process to get the funding out is in its early stages, but a spokesperson for Myers’ office confirmed it would go to five groups that recently got funding through Safer Summer PDX.
The city brought Myers -- a former fire chief -- back to work in Portland in 2021 to lead an effort to unify its public safety systems that have been bifurcated by Portland’s unique commission style of government. His official title is, “Community Safety Transition Director,” but that role has taken on a range of responsibilities from being the point person on the homelessness response to leading the effort to drive down historic gun violence.
That’s why -- on this occasion -- KATU sat down with Myers to discuss the first glimmer of hope in what’s been a dark few years. A KATU analysis of police data found in January and February of this year homicides were cut nearly in half compared to 2022. Total shooting incidents are down 34% compared to January and February 2022.
“There are many, many, many people working to drive gun violence down around the city of Portland,” Myers said from his conference-room-turned-office in Portland’s downtown City Hall.
Myers credited police, community groups, and everyday Portlanders trying to make their neighborhoods safer. However, even Myers was cautiously optimistic, knowing what stood around the corner: Spring break.
“Things are moving in the right direction. It is so tenuous that, you know, we could lose it all come spring break,” Myers said.
The concern for spring break turned out to be a tragic premonition as police reported the details of Saturday’s shooting near University Park.
Despite questions and fear in the community, police have not identified the victims or even shared their estimated ages. KATU knows nothing about suspects either, aside from what one witness told our reporter off-camera.
Despite the triple homicide, city leaders said they are resolute in their quest to quell the violence.
Pointing back to what KATU found about the street level outreach program, Myers remained optimistic the city would be better positioned this summer to continue positive momentum addressing gun violence.
“Do you still feel like the city will get out in front of it and have [the full number of] street level outreach workers out before the summer starts?” KATU asked Myers.
“I do,” Myers said. “It's March right now. Like I said, we are putting out $500,000 right now to kind of kickstart and engage street level outreach workers right now during spring break. That money is available for them to have a contract now that can go right until the end of the year. At the same time, we'll have the street level outreach request for proposals done and out for the summer.”
The goal is to prevent more families from experiencing grief and trauma and to break the cycle of what can become generational retaliation. The very future of the Rose City may depend on it.
Editor’s note: Once again, our conversation with Mike Myers came before the weekend violence. The three deaths marked the 15th, 16th, and 17th homicides of the year -- six fewer than this time last year.