Portland seeing slower police response, more burglaries amid protests, data show

Slower police response times for reported burglaries amid the ongoing nightly protests in Portland, Ore., have business owners concerned that criminals may feel emboldened to commit crimes as law enforcement resources are shifted to combat the demonstrations that have, at times, turned violent.

The Portland Police Bureau responded to 473 burglaries in June, compared to 401 in June in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively, KATU-TV reported.

The news outlet said three businesses were recently burglarized in the past three weeks by the same person. The first suspected burglary occurred on July 2 at the ReBelle's vintage boutique where $8,000 worth of jewelry and other items were taken in less than 10 minutes.

“He had a crowbar. He broke the window,” owner Pat Marken said. “Went to our jewelry case and basically wiped out everything. We had just restocked because we had just reopened."

“There’s a lot of opportunity for people who are looking to steal, because they know that their response time, even if you have an alarm -- in under 10 minutes, the police aren’t going to be here even on a good day,” Marken said of the shift of police resources to the protests in the city's downtown.