The new Assistant Chief is Art Nakamura, who will oversee the Investigations Branch. AC Nakamura previously was a Commander in charge of the Specialized Resources Division. AC Nakamura takes over for former AC Jami Resch who resigned from the Bureau on January 13, 2023, to become the Deputy Chief of Springfield Police Department. In addition to this appointment, Captain Rob Simon was appointed to Commander and assigned to North Precinct. Lieutenant Greg Pashley was promoted to Captain and assigned to the Personnel Division.
The Bureau now has 800 sworn members. This includes all ranks from Chief to the 541 officers. Of those officers, 102 are in training. There are currently 308 patrol officers.
PPB is building back from its lowest number of sworn members, which was 773 in September 2022. This was the fewest sworn members since 1989. The lowest number of members at the rank of officer was in May 2022, when there were 509 out of 609 authorized.
While these officers are being presented their badge today, it will be some time yet before they are fully trained and working in patrol cars. The training process for a new hire is 18 months, including the Basic Police Academy at the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training in Salem, a PPB Advanced Academy, and field training with a coach.
Also hired today were 6 new Public Safety Support Specialists (PS3s), who are non-sworn, unarmed members in uniform who serve alongside sworn officers who handle non-emergency matters. PPB now has 47 PS3s, and has hired as many as budget allocations allow.
> More information about PS3s
Today, the Bureau also hired five Police Records Specialists and is now fully staffed after several months operating with vacancies. The Bureau also recognized a new Police Desk Clerk, Force Audit Analyst, Digital Forensics Examiner, and Police Review Board Coordinator (all professional staff members) who have been recently hired.
The Portland Police Bureau still has sworn vacancies and continues hiring both lateral and entry level community police officers. It's an exciting and rewarding career, with excellent benefits. Salary ranges $75k-$107k per year plus pay incentives. Benefits are 95% paid by the city. Visit https://JoinPortlandPolice.com for more information or to contact a recruiter.