PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — An East Portland community came together to celebrate a milestone in the effort to reduce gun violence.
Portland Police officers and community leaders gathered at a Centennial Neighborhood church on Thursday, where the last meeting with current leadership was held.
The Community Oversight Group formed in 2021 following calls for police accountability and a sharp increase in crime and shootings. It’s guided PPB’s Focused Intervention Team (FIT).
“You look at the statistics, and what the statistics were telling us at the time was that between black and brown individuals, they were being killed at a phenomenal rate,” one pastor noted.
Portland is seemingly making progress in the effort to curb gun violence.
The city is seeing double-digit drops across all shooting categories from January to June 2025, compared to the same time last year, according to statistics provided during the meeting.
- Homicides down 50%
- Shootings down 32%
- Shootings with injuries down 38%
- Homicides by gunfire down 46%
Many credit the partnership between the community and police.
“All of us 12 officers could not do that. It took our precincts. It took community,” one community leader said.
Andre Miller, Chief of Staff for Councilor Angelita Morillo, believes more needs to be done to improve the relationship.
“When we’re talking about black and brown communities, we are always over-surveilled and over-policed within our communities,” he said when referring to the shot-spotter, technology used to detect gun shots.
The current board from the oversight group is handing over the baton to new members, and the expectations are high.
“It’s a collective effort from the people who don’t believe in the work, from the people who do believe in the work,” Lionel Irving said.
The group meets with police every Thursday, and if you have any concerns about improving the relationship between police and making your community safer, they’d like to hear from you.
This goes back to when Portland Police had the Gang Enforcement Team.
In 2019, it was relabeled the Gun Violence Reduction Team. The name and team were disbanded following an audit and public scrutiny over their practices in labeling people by their alleged gang affiliations.
In 2022, the bureau created FIT. PPB said their role is to focus on specific crimes plaguing communities, whether that is shootings or robberies.
FIT has a community oversight group with a role to give guidance to the bureau leadership and officers, something the gang enforcement team did not.
