PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland’s rising violence reached a new milestone Saturday. Police Chief Chuck Lovell said the city has now had more than 1,000 shootings in 2021.
Lovell called it a “terrible problem” and said the Enhanced Community Safety Team is working hard to investigate the cases.
“Too many have prematurely ended lives and caused injury. But all shootings cause trauma to our community,” Lovell wrote in a tweet.
He said he’s happy to work with police partners on addressing the number of shootings. He also asked the community to come forward with information to help officers arrest those committing gun crimes.
The Portland Police Bureau is still working on building the Focused Intervention Team, which aims to de-escalate and lower tensions in the community that are contributing to what Lovell called “the contagious gun violence crisis.”
Lovell also acknowledged his officers, sergeants, criminalists and detectives who have responded to the shootings and said he knows the crisis affects them too.