Portland police increase patrols

PORTLAND – In the wake of five downtown shootings, Portland officials have promised to blanket the city’s entertainment core with officers on bike, foot and horseback to ease the public’s fear.

Also, club owners have been asked to stagger their closing times so that large groups of young adults do not emerge onto downtown streets at the same time.

Most of the shootings have been tied to local gangs, said Police Chief Derrick Foxworth.

Investigators say some of the music played by the nightclubs in downtown Portland appear to be drawing more gang members recently. That may be a result of other nightclubs in other parts of the city closing. “There’s a displacement issue,” said Portland Police Officer John Laws.

On Monday, a torrent of gunfire killed one man and injured another outside a nightclub, the fifth time in four months that shots have been fired on a weekend night in Portland’s downtown. Four of the shootings occurred on a Sunday between 1 and 2:45 a.m.

At least two of the men arrested Monday and the man who was killed are tied to the Hoover Craps gang, police said.

Although the shootings have rocked the city’s core, violence overall is down in Portland’s central precinct. Reports of “shots fired” dropped to 97 during the first five months of this year from 103 in 2004. Violent crime is down 4 percent over this time last year.

But when violence occurs in a well-lit, public place, it tends to create a sense of urgency. “When violence is drawn to the center of the city, it most certainly makes the news…It is a visible area and thus garners attention,” said Foxworth.

Operation Safe Streets will bring out at least two dozen officers to will patrol the district on foot, bike and horseback starting Friday night.