Clark deputies, Vancouver officers among police response to Portland riot

Clark County sheriff’s deputies and Vancouver police officers were among the police present Thursday night in Portland, and an sheriff’s office spokesman said Friday the office anticipates sending more deputies this weekend.

Responding to a mutual aid request from the Portland Police Bureau, 15 members of the Clark County Mobile Response Team were deployed to respond to help with the protest-turned-riot in downtown Portland.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman said that the team is specially trained to deal with large crowds of unruly individuals.

The deployment lasted from about 9:30 p.m. to 3 a.m., and the agency back-filled the vacant patrol deputy positions with off-duty personnel. During the deployment, deputies on patrol were placed on a limited resource plan, responding to only in-progress or violent crimes.

Neiman said that deputies go to the Portland area a couple of times a year for large-scale events that would overwhelm any one agency.

“When there’s a big event that taps all the resources of any one particular jurisdiction, we have mutual aid understanding agreement with all the surrounding agencies,” Neiman said. “If we had something that overwhelmed our ability to deal with it, Portland would respond.”

Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said the department sent two officers trained for emergency medicine to assist another team of officers.