Portland traffic stops reach record low while fatal crashes spike

Portland police stopped 80% fewer drivers in 2022 than 10 years ago, while the number of crash fatalities in the city nearly doubled in the same period, rising from 32 in 2012 to 62 last year.

The Portland Police Bureau expects the number of traffic stops to increase this year with the partial reinstatement of the bureau’s traffic division in May, which sent 14 traffic officers back onto city streets. Going forward, officials said the bureau plans to add traffic enforcers, but it’s unclear when – if ever – the division could reach the level of staffing it had a decade ago.

Vehicle crashes so far this year have killed 42 people, including 11 in July alone. By this time last year, 34 people had died in crashes, according to data from the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

In 2012, the bureau assigned 61 officers to the traffic division and performed 67,418 stops, police spokesperson Terri Wallo-Strauss said.

The police bureau suspended its traffic division in 2021 amid the pandemic to fill patrol shifts, reduce overtime and improve response times to 911 calls.

In 2022, zero non-investigative traffic officers patrolled city streets, and the number of stops plunged to 13,654.

“Traffic stops can be some of the most important work we do,” Wallo-Strauss said. “We do not have as many traffic officers as the city needs, but the bureau has put a focus on getting more traffic units and we will have more in the future.”

The numbers come from the latest issue of the Police Bureau’s Stops Data Collection Reports, which track racial disparities in stops of drivers and pedestrians.

Traffic stops in Portland have been steadily declining for years, but plummeted the most in 2021 – 44% – after Chief Chuck Lovell reassigned 20 non-investigative traffic officers to patrol duty, and the bureau moved to prioritize safety violations in high crash corridors over lower-level infractions, such as missing or expired license plates.

Stops fell an additional 3% in 2022 after then-Gov. Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 1510 into law, barring officers from pulling over drivers for minor traffic violations like a burned-out taillight.

According to Wallo-Strauss, fewer sworn officers, an increasing demand for police responses to 911 calls and higher numbers of violent crimes also contributed to the decline in traffic stops.

Police expect the trend to reverse this year, with traffic officers patrolling high-crash areas of the city daily between 5 p.m. and 3 a.m., when drunk or impaired drivers are most likely to be on the road.

More than half of fatal crashes in 2022 occurred along Portland’s “high crash network,” the 30 busiest and deadliest streets and intersections, according to the city’s transportation bureau. While those streets comprise 8% of Portland’s roads, they accounted for 70% of fatal crashes in 2022, data show.

A bill to expand Oregon’s DUII (driving under influence of intoxicants) law now awaits the governor’s signature. If approved, prosecutors in Oregon could bring charges against drivers who are intoxicated by any drug, including over-the-counter drugs – not just alcohol, inhalants, psilocybin, cannabis or controlled substances, as it stands now.

Speed, recklessness and alcohol have played a role in several recent crashes, police said.

A driver being chased by Gresham police on June 25 struck and killed 40-year-old driver Jennifer Parise and injured others. The driver, Nathan Franklin Jr., is facing charges of DUII, reckless driving and first-degree manslaughter.

Just over two weeks later, another driver, identified as Duprie Smith, T-boned a car with 11-year-old Ryan Ambrose inside. The boy died in the hospital. Smith faces charges of DUII, reckless driving and first-degree manslaughter.

On July 15, Jeanie Diaz died after a car rolled over the sidewalk and struck her at a Southeast Portland bus stop. Police said the driver, 48-year-old Kevin Scott, showed signs of intoxication from alcohol.

Six days later, a 26-year-old man was charged with manslaughter after a two-car crash on Southwest Barbur Boulevard that killed his passenger July 21. Portland police said Espoir Kaneke was under the influence of intoxicants when he crashed into another car and spun into the Rustix Pub shortly after 1:30 a.m.