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City officials outline plan to restructure 911 call types and detail how police spend their time
Summary
Bureau of Emergency Communications and Portland Police Bureau presented a call-type restructuring project and data showing roughly three-quarters of police time is driven by dispatch calls; officials said some call types—such as certain welfare checks and unattended-death responses—may be rerouted or redefined pending stakeholder review.
Portland city staff and police officials on Tuesday presented data on how emergency calls move through the Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC) and how much of Portland Police Bureau (PPB) time those calls consume, and outlined a multiagency project to revise the city's call-type categories.
The presentation, given to the Community and Public Safety Committee, described a July 2024 project to 'restructure' about 25 existing 911 call types with the goals of sending 'the right responder to the right call,' reducing unnecessary police responses and updating dispatch protocols. Nick McDonald, the performance analyst leading the project, said the team will seek stakeholder agreement before sending recommendations to bureau leaders and the council.
'We began in June 2024,' McDonald said, and are developing a decision-making framework and an implementation plan that includes new call-type definitions, dispatch criteria and performance metrics. He told the committee the group hopes to present preliminary recommendations to bureau leads in May and 'rapidly wrap up' the project by…
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