Troutdale committee presses deputies for clearer crime dashboards and hotspot mapping
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Summary
Committee members and deputies reviewed Multnomah County incident dashboards and heat maps, requested more precise dot-mapping and clarification from the county crime analyst about mismatches between call logs and written reports, and discussed recurring vandalism and theft hotspots.
Committee members spent substantial time reviewing the sheriff's crime dashboard and asked deputies to produce more precise, actionable data for identifying micro-hotspots. Staff demonstrated heat maps and filters (person vs. property incidents) and pointed to clusters near Columbia River Highway/Stark and the Safeway parking lot. Members said the current heat maps highlight broad areas but do not consistently pinpoint exact locations the committee could use to request targeted enforcement.
Deputy Nick briefed the committee on recent notable incidents: a SWAT callout for an armed domestic-violence suspect, and an arrest following a Motel 6 traffic stop in which a suspect with outstanding warrants for armed carjacking and weapons charges was taken into custody. Nick said the holidays had been relatively quiet and described three death-investigation responses that required medical-examiner coordination.
The group probed data-generation differences: Nick and staff explained that the dashboard shows crimes for which formal reports were written, while call logs include many dispatched or self-initiated calls that do not always generate a report. Committee members said that mismatch complicates their ability to back requests for special enforcement or budget decisions. Nick suggested following up with the county's crime analyst (Kevin Morelli) for technical clarifications and to ask whether a dot-based map (rather than broad heat tiles) could be produced for committee use.
Members raised recurring vandalism at bus stops (257th & Stark and other locations) and thefts in retail parking areas. Nick said TriMet often repairs bus stops without reporting to the sheriff's office, which creates an unrecorded data gap. He described past multi-month burglary patterns that enabled arrests when deputies found multiple stolen vehicles dumped within a small radius.
Frank and others raised concerns about the annual point-in-time homeless count, arguing that counts taken in winter understate summer encampments and therefore risk skewing funding and resource allocation. Frank offered to ask Portland State University or provide his own data and suggested the committee invite PSU to present methodology and local results at a future meeting.
Next steps: the committee requested follow-up with the county crime analyst about dashboards, asked staff to explore dot-mapping and better crosswalks between calls and reports, and scheduled additional discussion of hotspot data at the next meeting.
