Cuts to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will affect Portlanders’ everyday lives, according to officials in the DA’s office and Portland Police Bureau.
Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury’s proposed 2020 budget includes a 3 percent cut to the DA’s general fund which–combined with slashes in state and federal funding–amount to a cut of six full time employees in three different units.
“This will impact our ability to prosecute misdemeanors and crimes of livability,” Nathan Vasquez, a senior deputy district attorney, said. The office may stop prosecuting some crimes and reclassify others to devote resources to the most severe cases, according to Vasquez.
Current understaffing
Members of the DA’s office have decried current understaffing, writing that “we struggle to adequately uphold our duties and responsibilities” in a report released ahead of the proposed budget. The report states that most units already operate with a deficit of two to 15 deputy district attorneys, according to national staffing standards.
When Vasquez started working for the Multnomah County DA’s Office in 2000, there were 100 attorneys. Now, he said, there are 72. The office should have 114 attorneys, according to Vasquez.
The DA’s Office will likely lose three juvenile court employees, two victim’s assistance clerks and one felony legal assistant between the county budget and a $2.1 million state and federal cut to juvenile programs, said Brent Weisberg, communications director of the Multnomah County DA’s Office. Weisberg said that specifics will evolve over the course of the budget process, and he does not know how many attorneys will be cut.
The proposed 2020 budget shows an increase from 2019, as money will be directed towards Gresham body cameras, rising labor costs for current attorneys and half of the DA’s Office’s requested budget for some juvenile programs. But the budget does not make up for the losses from the state and federal governments, and the Office expects to lose employees from the 3 percent cut to all county departments.
Effects on law enforcement
One alteration the DA’s Office may make is to stop prosecuting theft under $5,000. This is a sharp increase from the current cut off of $1,000. I asked Vasquez what would happen to me if I stole $3,000 worth of merchandise after the policy change: “We see if you steal a couple more thousand,” he replied.
Portland Police Commander Mike Krantz worries the cuts will exacerbate the amount of repeat arrests his Central precinct performs each day. With fewer crimes being prosecuted, people could continue to commit crimes without ever being sentenced.
“If the ability to hold people accountable is disrupted, that will be hugely impactful to Portlanders’ everyday lives,” Krantz said.
Portland Police are also understaffed, as they’ve struggled to fill the 49 sworn positions City Council approved funding for in 2018. Like the DA’s Office, they’ve directed resources to their most urgent calls, which still take about eight minutes to respond to. Even if they can address lower level offenses, police know the offenders won’t be prosecuted because of constraints at the DA’s office.
Although the DA’s Office “would love to attack” car and bike thefts—a mounting concern among Portlanders—Vasquez said the funding just isn’t there. He said that when there are property and livability crimes among cases of abuse and murder, “it’s a pure question of what goes.”
Photo courtesy of PPB
Demand for accountability in the DA’s Office
Critics of the criminal justice system in Portland have called for greater accountability in the DA’s Office. In a letter published during last year’s budget season, a coalition of nonprofits criticized Multnomah County for continuing to fund the department without setting measurable outcomes for equity and community enhancement.
“Prosecutors shouldn’t be evaluated primarily on the number of cases processed but on the quality of the outcomes,” the letter states. “Patience has run out on a system that continues to treat people of color more harshly.”
A 2016 county report found that African Americans comprised 27 percent of people in Multnomah County jails despite making up 7 percent of the county population.
The ACLU of Oregon is among critics of the DA’s Office. Doug Brown, a communications associate for the organization, said that money directed towards the process of incarceration “does pull resources away from other programs which may be more effective at keeping communities safe.”
Brown hopes that county commissioners and the DA’s Office will be “mindful of the cost-benefit analyses” when directing money to public safety. Other organizations that signed last year’s letter declined to comment.
The DA’s Office has attempted to address racial disparities in various ways. In 2013 it formed an equity committee which has provided trauma and implicit bias training to employees. The Office has since joined the county’s Racial and Ethnic Disparities subcommittee and pursued programs such as Treatment First and the Justice Reinvestment Program, which reduce jail sentences by directing people to social services.
These efforts could be diminished if the DA’s budget is cut, according to their report.
“Time to think”
It was once common for deputy district attorneys to frequent community meetings, but public engagement has been nearly eliminated as the office has shrunk. Vasquez now takes on a full caseload of eight murders and 50-100 other crimes in addition to his duties as a senior deputy.
“You need people—and this is critical—who have time to think about the cases,” said Edward Jones, a former chief criminal judge for the Multnomah County Circuit Court. Jones retired in 2017.
“Disorganization in the DA’s Office is not a friend of justice.”
Getting involved
The public comment period for the county budget begins this week, with a public safety budget hearing scheduled for May 8. See full public input calendar here.
Testifying at Multnomah County is simpler than at City Council. Board meetings are held each Thursday at 9:30 a.m., and you can sign up just before the meeting to speak on any topic. Find more details here.
If you’d like help or support in preparing testimony, contact your neighborhood association or Neighbors West-Northwest.