Portland police report steady arrest totals and a drop in murders in first half of year; calls for service remain high

Portland Police Chief Mark DuBois presented midyear public safety data to the Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committee on July 8, saying total violent crime is trending downward and that the city recorded no murders in the first six months of the year — a first in recent years.

DuBois broke crime statistics into categories of crimes against persons and crimes against property, and he said clearance rates are higher for crimes against people because detectives focus resources on those investigations. He said property crimes remain challenging to clear when there is no surveillance or recovered property to link to suspects.

The chief told the committee calls for service have increased over the long term and officers spend more time on reactive work (911 and nonemergency calls), which reduces opportunities for proactive, officer‑initiated activity. He said the department is seeing consistent arrest numbers so far this year but that certain property‑crime categories that rose in 2024 (burglaries, larceny, motor vehicle theft) remain elevated.

Councilors asked about displacement effects from added foot patrols on Congress Street and whether enforcement pushes activity to adjacent neighborhoods. DuBois said activity can shift depending on where services are concentrated and that staff are working on a public dashboard (records and mapping) that will make incident and call‑volume data more accessible. He acknowledged the department’s records management system (ProPhoenix) poses reporting challenges for time‑on‑scene analysis and other detailed metrics and said work is ongoing to address system issues.

Committee members and the chief agreed staff will continue to monitor trends and that a public dashboard is expected to be rolled out to provide searchable local data by precinct, beat and incident type.