Portland — Portland police have racked up more than half a million dollars in overtime costs between Nov. 3 and 16 stemming from officers’ response to protests in the days before the presidential election and in its aftermath.
The total was $592,816 in overtime costs during that two-week period, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
The police response to the Million Mask march, an anti-capitalist demonstration on Nov. 5 in which protesters blocked Interstate 5 northbound near the Morrison Bridge, cost $29,677 in overtime.
The police response to the anti-Trump protests cost $563,139 in overtime, according to the bureau.
The bureau decided it needed to stand firmer with a more visible presence after a march turned into a riot on Nov. 10, when a small band of destructive protesters infiltrated the marchers demonstrating against the election of Donald Trump and used bats to smash windows of Pearl Street businesses, set fires to newspaper boxes and broke windows of cars parked in a Toyota dealership lot.
The bureau largely relied on its four 15- to 18-member Rapid Response Teams, squads of officers clad in riot-control gear and trained in crowd control, to block streets and entries to bridges and the freeways. Protesters largely ignored the chief’s and mayor’s pleas for demonstrators to get permits to march in the city’s streets. On several nights, officers fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades in an effort to disperse the demonstrators.
The bureau also used other mobile field forces staffed by precinct officers. At times, the precincts had to limit their patrol responses to only emergency priority calls because some officers had been pulled for protest coverage, the chief said.
At least 120 people were handcuffed, cited or taken to jail.
The post-election protest coverage costs will come from the bureau’s $9.1 million overtime budget. Portland police anticipate using salary savings due to approximately 87 officer vacancies this fiscal year to cover potential overspending in the overtime budget, police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said.
