Many Portland, Oregon Police officers and supervisors left the state’s largest police force over the last year by taking early retirement or by quitting, according to The Oregonian.
City employees who turned in their badges or retired were brutally honest about their reasons for getting out. "The community shows zero support. The city council are raging idiots, in addition to being stupid. Additionally, the mayor and council ignore facts on crime and policing in favor of radical leftist and anarchists’ fantasy. What’s worse is ppb command (Lt. and above) is arrogantly incompetent and cowardly," one retiring detective wrote, reports the Washington Examiner.
Thirty-one police officers agreed during their exit interviews, oregonlive.com reported.
The turnover is the highest seen in the last 15 years, with at least 115 officers having retired or quit since July 1 of last year. This personnel shift has created 93 open officer positions, as well as 43 open civilian positions, reports the Washington Examiner.
"What the city council has done to beat down the officers’ willingness to do police work is unfathomable," a retired training officer wrote, according to the Oregonian. "I have never seen morale so low. Officers leaving mid-career and sometimes sooner to go to other agencies. Officers retiring when they would have stayed longer if the situation were different."
People are leaving due to not believing in the mission any longer — "feeling of hopelessness for a once thriving city," one officer wrote, oregonlive.com reported.
Last month, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler asked for $2 million in emergency funding for law enforcement.
We understand why the previous Council voted to make significant cuts and changes to the Police Bureau," a letter from the mayor read. "We acknowledge the serious reforms and major changes that need to occur in policing. However, we also believe defunding the Police Bureau without replacement programs and interventions caused a vacuum and put many people at risk and caused others to assume there was no accountability," he said.
This money is contrary to a bill the mayor signed last year that reduced the police department's budget by millions, even as violent crimes such as shooting were rising. By March of this year, 20 killings had taken place in the city compared to just 1 killing during the same time last year, the Washington Examiner reported.
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