Ore. Police Chief Warns Proposed $2M Budget Cuts Will Thin Patrols, Reduce Support Services
What to know
- Portland leaders are weighing significant police budget cuts as part of an effort to close a $160 million citywide funding gap, putting pressure on the police bureau to reduce services while maintaining staffing.
- The mayor’s proposal would preserve all sworn police officer positions but sharply reduce unarmed public safety support specialists, overtime, training and victim services, raising concerns about response times and workload strain.
- Police leaders and the union warn the cuts would reduce service levels and staffing flexibility, while some community advocates argue the city is prioritizing sworn officers at the expense of lower‑cost alternatives that handle non‑emergency calls.
As Portland leaders delve deeper this week into city budget discussions, Police Chief Bob Day will continue to occupy the unenviable role of seeking to protect the Police Bureau’s funding while avoiding a repeat of last year’s contentious City Council deal-making.
Mayor Keith Wilson’s tentative $8.5 billion city budget seeks to bridge a more than $160 million general fund gap by slashing millions of dollars across city agencies and programs, including the Police Bureau.
That could spell an 80% cut to the Police Bureau’s unarmed “public safety support specialist” program, eliminating 34 full-time employees to save $4.5 million.
The mayor’s budget proposal also cuts police overtime spending by $1.7 million, or about 20,000 hours. An additional $1.6 million in savings would come from reductions to administrative staff at the North and East precincts. Training and victim services budgets would both be scaled back by 35%.
At a press conference Thursday, Day played the dual role of doomsayer and cheerleader, saying the proposed cuts would hurt police service levels — while also standing behind the mayor’s plan.
“This is the proposal that we put forward,” Day said. “We did this in conjunction. I’m not happy about it. I don’t like it. I’ve been through the five stages of grief about 48 times in the last week.”
Notably, the proposal would allow every sworn police officer to keep their job, as the city continues its recruiting push. As of Wednesday, the Police Bureau employed 822 sworn officers, up from 788 at the start of 2025, after having hired 67 in the past year. Its goal is to have 877.
But not everyone likes the approach of protecting sworn officers.
Marc Poris, from community police accountability organization Portland Copwatch, said the city should not be prioritizing sworn officers over the public safety support specialists, who answer low-level, non-emergency calls, freeing up sworn officers to handle higher priority calls. Portland police first hired public safety specialists in June 2019.
“It is widely acknowledged that armed officers are not suitable for a large percentage of PPB’s calls for service, particularly when interacting with people with perceived or actual mental illness,” Poris wrote in an email.
Councilor Steve Novick, chair of the public safety committee, said Friday that he doesn’t think “any of the cuts are good.” He also raised concerns about the proposed reductions to support specialists. “I want some assurances,” he said, “that it’s not going to be a matter of having more expensive people doing the work of less expensive people at the expense of more important work.”
While the mayor’s proposed cuts to the Police Bureau are small compared with its overall annual budget — about $2 million off this year’s $321 million — the city says costs are growing and $319 million is 6%, or $20 million, less than what it needs to fund the bureau at existing levels.
That’s why Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of the police union, called the cuts “crippling.”
“I keep hearing people say, ‘Do more with less,’” Schmautz said. “There’s no more to give.”
Schmautz’s union also represents the public safety specialists, and he said they handled more than 21,000 calls last year.
Schmautz said reducing support staff while cutting overtime will create “cascading” issues for what he described as an already understaffed bureau. The overtime cuts, he said, will mean fewer cops on the street, as the bureau can’t meet its minimum staffing levels without relying on overtime.
“The idea that we can continue to provide the same level of service that we’re providing today … for 6% less, it’s just, it’s fantasy,” Schmautz said.
Losing most of the public safety specialists and cutting overtime will mean wait times will increase and more calls may be referred to online reporting instead of prompting a live response, Day said.
“This organization is incredibly thin to begin with. Every cut we make is a cut to the bone,” Day said. “Everything we have is critical, and any changes we make will reduce services.”
The City Council is scheduled to hold multiple public hearings and work sessions on the mayor’s proposal in the coming weeks. The 12-member council will then vote to approve a revised proposal in mid-May and adopt the final budget in June. Wilson has no veto power and can only cast a vote on the final budget to break a council tie. Council president Jamie Dunphy declined to comment on the proposed Police Bureau budget.
Councilors last year clashed for weeks over the proposed police budget, ultimately diverting $2 million earmarked for police to parks in a divisive move.
Shane Dixon Kavanaugh contributed to this report.
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