Portland Oregon. Mayor Ted wheeler has announced his latest
plans to increase the city's police budget. The mayor
says that within the next three years, he will
seek$7 million in new public safety spending that will
go towards hiring back 25 retired officers along with 100
unarmed public safety specialists. The announcement comes as the
city has witnessed its most violent year with a record
72 homicides, joining us now to discuss Morris former
Chief of Police in the greater Atlanta area, also
a friend of the show. Clarence, cox Clarence
, Welcome back to the show, Always a pleasure
to talk to you. So according to the mayor
, Portland's experiencing a deadly era in modern times.
That's a quote. How did the city even get
there? Yeah, well, Portland is not a
single entity that experience and it's actually happening across this
country in most major cities and you know, we've
had a lot of people, uh, you know
, with mental health crisis being locked down in houses
and other facilities during this pandemic, which has caused
a great deal of our uptick in crime. But
Portland is not unique in that area, but I'm
certainly happy to see that the mayor is proposing these
increased budget changes because, you know, so many
people were talking about defunding the police and it was
a knee jerk reaction due to some misconduct by officers
in various agencies across this country and there needed to
be some reform, but I think his investments as
I read and understand are in the right areas.
You know, body worn cameras are something that I'm
a very big proponent on. And I think the
mayor is going in the right direction with some of
the initiatives and, you know, I've always said
, you know, reallocating those funds sometimes would be
beneficial in some agencies because, you know, back
in the old days when domestic violence first came out
, the mexican violence was very hot topic and they
created what's called domestic crisis in a vent. Uh
, officers receive specialized training on those type of issues
. So I think we can do the same thing
now with this mental health crisis. And maybe instead
of trying to employ psychologists and mental health practitioners,
maybe provide some online training or some, uh,
institutional training into the police academies that will give us
a little bit of a better break when we deal
with mental health issues. So far, the city
has been unable to fill those vacant roles in the
police bureau. Why do you think that is?
You know, sometimes in this era it's not a
good time to be law enforcement because many guys in
ladies and gentlemen who carry the badge, look at
the fact that you're being vilified. We're probably one
of the, uh, only, or the main
occupation where you can lose everything you own. And
one, you know, one arrest, 11 case
with the civil liabilities associated with being law enforcement.
So with the modern technology and some of the abuses
that have been going on, obviously for years are
now being seen and and and you know out front
now a lot of these folks who don't need to
be on the job are not on the job and
we're glad of that. But a lot of good
folks that should be on the job and people we
think that could contribute to our communities and the safety
and welfare of our citizens don't want to take that
job for the risk of losing everything they have.
And we clearly understand that, do you think Mayor
wheeler's goal of ramping up more police officers is an
ambitious one? Do you think this strategy will work
if the budget is eventually passed? I think it's
an ambitious one. Yes, but I applaud his
efforts because what you've got to understand that agencies across
this country are experiencing the same thing that he is
uh with vacancies. Uh you know those, those
who could retire, they are retiring in record numbers
. Um It's just not an attractive job right now
. And when you have companies like amazon and others
who are offering similar monies to do a whole lot
less? You're competing against a different workforce? Pre
pre pre pandemic. So it seems the mayor is
making investments, he seems to be offering incentives like
hiring bonuses. But are there any drawbacks in your
experience to this method? Yeah, we've seen those
across the country. Um especially with the hiring bonuses
a lot of times, you know, young men
and women will come in and and take the$1,500
or whatever the incentive is and they'll stay for a
very short period of time and find another agency and
, and it just continues to go from one agency
to another. I'm thinking though, if we could
pass some kind of reform bills to assure these young
men and women coming into this profession that we're going
to have the highest standards and you're going to be
held accountable in a meaningful, in a way that
, uh, you know, that's equitable to everybody
. I think those are the things we need to
start with because there are some, especially the millennials
, they are wanting to do these things right,
But they, they want those assurances and we have
not given them to them yet. So until we
do those kinds of things, I think the mayor
and others, you know, we're gonna be fighting
an uphill battle trying to recruit from one agency to
another and trying to get the brightest and best people
. There's another argument coming out of Portland's, some
are saying that if the city hires 300 plus officers
, it will only worsen the situation with black and
brown youth staying in prison. Your response to that
, I don't agree with that at all. In
fact this administration and previous administration has worked very hard
to try to reform the juvenile justice system. And
there has been some very uh good inroads. I
and I've been a part of trying to create systems
that would decrease the prison to school, school to
prison pipeline. There are those who argue against school
resource officers and I think that's definitely not a start
because, you know, young folk impressionable in,
in my mind, if you have a good impression
from the first meeting with someone that will continue to
grow and turn into a relationship, and I think
it's very important that we do introduce our young folks
into law enforcement relationships at an early age so that
they understand that we can also help them, you
know, more than, you know, putting these
young folk in jail. My worry is that if
we continue to see the uptick in crime, there
are those who are wanting to increase the penalties associated
with the youth and others that we've just reduced and
I think that's when we're gonna have a bad problem
, I think we've got to embrace this thing and
do a lot better job of communicating and investing in
our youth. And I know there are all kinds
of programs out there and they don't always meet the
criteria. And some of the young folks, you
know, we talk about transportation, law enforcement is
engaged in a whole lot of things. If the
kids can't get to the location for the programs,
then what good is the program. So we've got
to address a lot of different things that are not
necessarily in the law enforcement to box Clarence. It's
always great to talk to you former chief of the
Great Atlanta Area, my former stomping ground Clarence cox
. Thank you so much for your time Clarence.