ALT An official advertisement from Portland Street Response - Here to Help. Mental & Behavioral Health Crisis Teams. Call 911 to request a PSR team.

ALT Community outreach and input was such an important part of developing Portland Street Response, but that approach has been missing from the program as of late. People who are impacted by PSR should always have a voice in its development, as they did in the beginning. This announcement, regardless of opinion, continues a trend of recent years where PSR policy decisions are made behind closed doors with little to no community or Council input. We look forward to Mayor Wilson and City Council re-engaging Portlanders and providing transparent and evidence-based decision-making related to PSR. Friends of PSR is looking forward to being part of the ongoing work to ensure PSR's success.

ALT A representative with PROTEC17, the union representing the majority of Portland Street Response workers, spoke to OPB on concerns about PSR co-responding too often with police: “Whiteside did mention some PSR staff hesitation about working alongside law enforcement. She said many staff have worked hard to build trusted relationships with people living outside. She said some of those unhoused people are fearful or distrustful of the police, and having PSR partner with police could impact the trust they’ve built.”

ALT Independent evaluations have warned against involving PSR in enforcement activities, such as sweeps, which would erode PSR’s ability to maintain trust with community members in crisis. That trust is vital to ensuring PSR’s long term success. We hope City leaders will follow that recommendation. Portland Street Response should be established as a co-equal part of our public safety system alongside police, fire, and ambulance services. And they need to have the budget, staffing, and resources to be most effective. We look forward to Mayor Wilson providing further details regarding what these new policies will look like in practice.

ALT The potential of increased co-response with police raises questions and potential concerns. All first responders must have productive relationships and good communication. Situations on the ground can develop rapidly, changing the nature of a response to compel a co-response. According to the last independent evaluation, PSR previously co-responded with police in approximately 6% of all calls. We strongly believe in the original mission of PSR that found so much popularity, recognition, and success. That mission is to provide a response that is primarily independent of police, which is imperative to the trust PSR builds with the community, as well as PSR’s ability to free up police to respond to more emergent, high level crimes. Co-response scenarios should remain limited and specific.

ALT More call types is an exciting development. Until now, PSR was prohibited from responding to 911 calls that were inside. Now PSR is able to respond inside of: Lobbies of government buildings Privately owned businesses that are open to the public like restaurants, retail or grocery stores 🧵⬇️

ALT The ability for Portland Street Response to transport people to services is a welcome development – as long as transportation is voluntary for the client and at the discretion of the PSR responders. PSR must remain primarily a first responder dispatched through 911, and transportation should not be coerced (for example by threat of arrest or being swept). This would undermine the community trust that is imperative to the effectiveness of PSR as a crisis response program.

ALT Mayor Wilson announced he has made unilateral policy decisions with major implications for the future of Portland Street Response. Overall, Friends of PSR applauds this announcement. The ability to both respond to more call types and voluntarily transport people to services furthers PSR’s development as an effective and co-equal branch of the first-responder system. We are concerned about PSR’s potential increased proximity to law enforcement activities, which could undermine PSR’s original mission as an unarmed, independent 911 response that provides an effective alternative to police for people in crisis. It is also something explicitly warned against by the last independent program evaluation. Independent evaluations of PSR should be re-established to guide how these developments maintain PSR’s mission to provide the right response to each call type and location.