New police mission takes aim at rising gang violence
‘Operation Cool Down’ launched Friday with emphasis on more patrols, alternatives to gang life
Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman and a handful of local law enforcement agencies launched Friday morning plans to battle an increase in gang-related violence across the city.
Called “Operation Cool Down,” the mission includes agencies working with people and neighborhoods affected by the recent rise in gang violence. There has been a gang-related shooting or attack nearly every day since Dec. 12, when a man was shot in a Northeast Portland church during a funeral service.
That violence continued Wednesday afternoon, when a 22-year-old man allegedly shot at a vehicle in a Southeast Holgate Street neighborhood. Anthony Dwaine Bell was arrested and charged with attempted aggravated murder in connection with the shooting (Click the Local News Updates box at the top of the left column on this page for more information).
Included in the mission are representatives from the Portland Police Bureau, the Gresham Police Department, the Multnomah County district attorney’s office and the U.S. attorney’s office. The group will coordinate efforts with the Office of Youth Violence Prevention, local churches and synagogues, social service agencies and citizen volunteers.
Saltzman, who is the commissioner in charge of the Police Bureau, announced the new mission during a City Hall press conference.
The task force is expected to boost patrols in some areas using officers from the Portland Police Gang Enforcement Team HotSpot Enforcement Action Team, the East Metro Gang Enforcement Team, Multnomah County Parole and Probation and Metropolitan Gang Task Force. The group also will coordinate with social services and others to provide young people who are at risk of gang affiliation alternatives that steer them away from violence.
Police are seeing an increase in gang-related violence in the past year, with mid-December’s shootings topping off a busy year. The Portland Police Bureau’s Gang Violence Response Team investigated 68 cases of gang violence, most of them shootings, in 2008, said Lt. Mike Leloff with Portland’s Gang Enforcement Team. That’s a 70 percent jump compared to 2007, when the team investigated 40 cases.
The violence has spilled over into other parts of the region, with possible gang-related shootings reported in Gresham and Rockwood.
Mara Stine of the Gresham Outlook contributed to this news story.