Immediate responses to violence: How do we rapidly respond to incidents or threats of violence?

Teams from the cities and the County meet several times a week to provide targeted and coordinated responses to recent shootings.

Immediate Responses

Teams from the Cities and the County meet several times a week to provide targeted and coordinated responses to recent shootings. We also partner with violence interrupters and street-level outreach workers to build relationships with community members at greatest risk of being involved in violence, interrupt conflict, and provide support to victims and survivors.

Examples include:

  • Law enforcement shooting reviews
  • Collaboration between the Multnomah County Attorney’s Office and law enforcement. A Deputy District Attorney is called out to every homicide case pursuant to state law and is responsible for leading the investigation in collaboration with police. 
  • The Office of Violence Prevention (City of Portland): weekly coordination with Multnomah County Departments including the County Health Department, Department of Community Justice and Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. 
  • East Metro Outreach, Prevention and Intervention (City of Gresham): coordinates with culturally specific service providers, schools, and law enforcement to intervene with at-risk youth.
  • Street Level Outreach (City of Portland and City of Gresham): Street level outreach workers and violence interrupters engage with youth and young adults between the ages of 8 to 18 years old at risk of becoming a victim or perpetrators of violence. They attend after-school sports activities, evening scholars, and community events. Outreach workers and interrupters also constantly monitor designated hot spots around the city. 
  • Trauma and Violence Family Support: Care team members with lived experience from POIC + Rosemary Anderson High School’s community-based organization, provide effective mentorship and support after a violent incident. Families receive assurance of having their basic needs met, which aids healing.
  • Healing Hurt People: Offer resources and services to gun violence survivors at the hospital within hours of a shooting, with an ultimate goal of deterring retaliatory behavior. 
  • Ceasefire (Portland): A strategy that uses targeted interventions to engage those at highest risk of gun violence, offer resources and notify those individuals further violence is not acceptable. 
Last reviewed January 11, 2024