- Most grant money goes to police overtime, not surveillance hardware.
- Officers have four missions and a one-hour clearance goal.
- City documents describe static takeover-site cameras, not only deployable units.
Street takeovers and sideshows are an issue across the U.S. Different cities handle them in dramatically different ways, and Portland is no different. It just approved a $207,411 state grant to combat the issue. When takeovers happen in the near future, local law enforcement will have more officers, more equipment, and more technology to shut them down. Police also have a deadline, now, to eliminate the takeover in less than an hour from the time of the call.
Breaking down the fine print gives us some insight into how authorities plan to spend the cash. According to the city’s grant documents, $147,403 is budgeted for personnel and another $25,790 for benefits. Equipment gets $34,219. In other words, about 84 percent of the grant is going toward people, while the remaining slice covers the technology meant to help identify participants and build cases afterward.
Read: South Carolina Street Takeover Ends With 80 Arrests And 38 Cars Impounded
Portland Police Bureau plans to conduct four focused street-racing missions. By that measure, we’re talking about roughly $50,000 per operation. At least two are supposed to restore unrestricted traffic flow within an hour of officers learning about a takeover. The missions can involve other agencies, while PPB says it will use its own ground and air fleet, officers, dispatchers, and public-information staff.
Additionally, the camera wording is worth watching. The city’s ordinance calls them “deployable cameras,” but the detailed budget describes “takeover site static mounted cameras” along with vehicle- and body-camera accessories. That does not necessarily mean Portland is installing permanent surveillance at every popular stunt spot, but the public documents do not identify the equipment, locations, vendor, retention rules, or who can access the footage.
The city says it recorded 139 street-racing events in 2023, including three multi-day gatherings that drew more than 1,000 people and produced 238 service calls and four vehicle-related deaths. It also attributes 12 homicides since 2021 to takeovers. Those are grim numbers, so it’s good to see the city doing something to combat the takeovers.
Other cities across the U.S. have tried physical infrastructure changes to little success. Some have successfully instituted similar operations that included air support. Still others are openly using videos and photos posted online by participants to track vehicles down after the takeover ends.
It seems like a key element of Portland’s plan is oversight. PPB will need to prove that the extra overtime, air support, and new cameras actually preventing future takeovers. Otherwise, it’ll look like a whole lot of taxpayer cash going toward simply documenting takeovers in high resolution.
