Portland police stretched thin monitoring protests at ICE facility as overtime costs soar

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland police face a growing strain as they monitor protests near the ICE facility in South Portland, with National Guard troops yet to arrive.

Federal court documents show the Police Bureau logged more than 1,000 overtime hours between Sept. 28 and Oct. 1, costing taxpayers over $100,000. 

Last Sunday alone, the bureau spent nearly $58,000 in overtime.

Special units, including Rapid Response and Incident Management Teams, have been activated at the ICE facility, pulling officers off regular patrols and leaving other parts of the city with less police coverage, according to the court documents.

At a press conference Friday, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said, “We have invested hundreds of man hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in an attempt to provide a safe environment for all members of South Waterfront. And we’ll continue to do so.”

The city tracks police response times with an online dashboard that monitors dispatch and travel times. 

While Portland police aim to respond to high-priority calls within five minutes, the average response time over the past year was 19.6 minutes. 

In September, that jumped to 23.7 minutes.

Day acknowledged delays in response, saying, “There have been opportunities or times where maybe we were delayed in our response or not able to engage in the way that we would want to and provide that level of service — certainly, but that argument could be made across the city.”

Portland police say they need hundreds more officers to meet citywide demand, but Day says the current protests and resource strains are making that more difficult.

“That’s why I’m constantly reminding us about the importance of a well fully funded, fully staffed police department,” Day said.

Portland police confirm they do not have real-time data on response times during recent protests, but KOIN 6 is working to obtain it.

They say activating special teams pulls officers from normal patrols, limiting the bureau’s ability to respond citywide.