Portland leaders consider dedicated crowd control police unit ahead of potential election season unrest

Jami Seymore
·2 min read
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Big changes could soon come to the Portland Police Bureau as the city prepares for potential protests this election season. On Wednesday, the city will decide on funding a new crowd control unit.

With the election year in full swing, in Portland, city leaders are preparing for political unrest and the potential for violence like the city saw in 2020.

“There have been conversations going on since that time, you know, Portland’s a big city. And I think it’s our responsibility to ensure that we have the ability to respond to whatever may come,” Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland Police Association, said.

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It’s one of the reasons they’re considering funding for a “public order team” to respond as needed to free speech events should things escalate. It would be similar to the crowd control team that policed the 2020 protests before resigning as a group in 2021, following the indictment of an officer, charged with assault in a riot.

“You know, 2020 was obviously a very difficult time in our city’s history, our officers faced probably the most difficult circumstance of any officers in the country,” Schmautz said.

On Wednesday, the Portland City Council will consider funding for the specialized team which would come with a 6% pay boost, costing the city around $380,000 annually. We asked Schmautz about pushback for that much in the budget to go toward this unit. He says it’s a similar premium also paid to other specialized groups like SERT, narcotics and canine teams, etc, covering the staffing need and extra workload.

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“I do know that there’s officers who recognize the need to have this extra training,” Schmautz said.

As law enforcement in Portland have seen extra scrutiny in recent years, Schmautz says there are still a lot of questions as they move into the next stages of bringing crowd control officers back.

“How do we want to navigate public order events in Portland? How do we want our officers to be situated around these events? And how do we want to police them? What tools are we okay with?” Schmautz asked.

The Portland City Council is expected to vote on funding during Wednesday morning’s session.

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