We are in a crisis. This week started with a shooting that occurred in NE Portland with over 50 bullets striking a residence and at least 83 shell casings found at the scene.
Portland has been experiencing a continuous increase in gun violence at levels not seen in decades. This is a public health issue, because gun violence not only causes injury and death, it also erodes the physical, psychological, social, and economic health and development of nearly everyone in affected communities. Gun violence reduces life expectancy, inflicts trauma, limits opportunity and achievement, and further entrenches inequities.
That’s why the City’s Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) works to diagnose the problem—just as a doctor would diagnose a virus—and treat the social determinants that allow it to spread. OVP approaches gun violence as the public health issue that it is.
The available data reveals the extent of the issue. Between January 1 and December 3, 2020, there were 817 shooting incidents and 218 shooting injuries. As of December 3, the number of shooting incidents in 2020 was more than double the past year’s total of 393. In July 2020, there were 15 homicides in Portland—the most this city has seen in a single month in 30 years. And in the five days between Dec. 5 and Dec. 10, there were eight shooting incidents.
These incidents have been devastating to individuals, families, and entire communities. We are witnessing the weight of this trauma, and we need to treat gun violence like the emergency that it is.
The Office of Violence Prevention uses an evidence-based, public health-focused approach to respond to this crisis. OVP provides prevention, interruption, and intervention services through its programs, which include the Street Level Outreach program, Healing Hurt People (hospital-based trauma intervention program), Trauma and Violence Impacted Families (victim and family direct services), Life Coaches (credible messengers who work with high risk individuals), and the Portland Restoration Academy (returning citizens re-entry program).
As we approach the end of a record-breaking year, OVP is asking its community partners, stakeholders, and community members to continue collaborating to stop the violence. Each organization, government agency, law enforcement body and community group play a role in this work. We must occupy our lanes of prevention, intervention and interruption to stop the violence in its tracks.