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Public Safety -- Intro

Source: PDF pp. 604-605 ↗ · raw: 604 · 605

City of Portland Fiscal Year 2026-27 Proposed Budget Public Safety Overview The Public Safety Service Area is comprised of the Portland Police Bureau, the Portland Fire and Rescue Bureau, the Bureau of Emergency Communications, the Bureau of Emergency Management and Community Safety programs. The latter includes Ceasefire, the Office of Violence Prevention, Safe Blocks, Rose City Self Defense and Portland Street Response. Additionally, the DCA’s office also supports two advisory boards and commissions, including the Focus Intervention Team Community Oversight Group (FITCOG) and the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP). The Public Safety Service Area advances safety through collaborative prevention, response and recovery. Our bureaus and programs prioritize community-centered approaches that build trust, reduce harm, and address the root causes of violence. Through data-informed strategies and cross-agency coordination, the Service Area works to ensure equitable and effective public safety outcomes for all Portland residents. Gap Between Initial Appropriation and Current Service Level The Public Safety Service Area (PSSA) faces a significant structural gap between current service levels and the resources available from its General Fund Current Appropriation Level (CAL). This gap is driven by several intersecting factors across bureaus, including staffing and compensation pressures, escalating Internal Materials and Services (IMS) costs, the expiration of one-time funding, and changes in program delivery requirements.

  1. Staffing and Compensation Pressures Outside the Initial Appropriation Most public safety bureaus experienced higher than usual turnover from 2020-2022, along with hiring freezes and reductions in resources. The pipeline for recruitment, hiring, and training of new responders can take 18-36 months. Each bureau has a five-year staffing plan with assumptions on hiring and separations, including anticipated retirements. While the bureaus continue to hire, there is a high cost for trainees and recruits along with coaching premiums and overtime needed to maintain staffing targets. The City’s General Fund CAL approach does not include cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) within bureaus’ initial appropriations. While bureaus can typically request support for these adjustments through the Spring Technical Adjustments Ordinance (TAO), the size of this year’s citywide shortfall has brought additional scrutiny to those requests. As a result, health benefit increases and COLA-related gaps are now explicitly identified within the base budget gap for most public safety bureaus.
  2. Internal Materials and Services (IMS) Cost Growth Across all public safety bureaus, costs for centrally provided services, such as Fleet, Facilities, Risk, and Technology, have increased faster than the general inflation assumed in the General Fund CAL methodology. For the PSSA in FY27, this results in an estimated $4.5 million funding gap attributable to IMS increases alone.
  3. Expiration of One-Time Funding A substantial portion of the current service level has been supported by one-time resources over the past several years. As those funds expire, bureaus face significant gaps that must be closed to maintain existing programs. Key examples include: Portland Police Bureau (PPB): $11.2M structural gap, due to overtime needed to cover vacancies and large number of officers in training. Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R): $7.8M gap driven by overtime to meet minimum staffing on a shortened workweek and reliance on grants/one-time funding for the CHAT program. Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC): $1.2M gap to continue the dispatcher training pipeline. Community Safety Division: $7.7M gap primarily from the expiration of one-time gun violence prevention funding. Enterprise Services (FITCOG): $227K gap due to the absence of ongoing support for program coordination infrastructure.
  4. Other Structural Cost Pressures 604

City of Portland Fiscal Year 2026-27 Proposed Budget Several programmatic and contractual changes over the past two years have introduced new recurring costs that were not reflected in the General Fund CAL base: PF&R: $864K related to the retire/rehire program. Under contract terms, 26 employees have indicated intent for a one-year return, triggering additional expense, including retirement costs not covered by the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund. Portland Street Response (PSR): $855K gap due to a misalignment between funding assumptions and actual entry-level wages along with a 5% OPSRP salary increase. Enterprise Services: $742K related to the removal of core service realignment savings before corresponding position eliminations were implemented. Budget Program Expenses 2024-25 Actuals 2023-24 Actuals 2025-26 Revised Budget 2026-27 Proposed Bureau of Emergency $33,807,848 $33,655,945 $38,356,998 $37,318,683 Communications Office of the Public Safety $27,663,607 $20,175,702 $34,528,411 $37,308,813 DCA Portland Bureau of $8,426,627 $6,789,480 $9,916,095 $7,644,100 Emergency Management Portland Fire & Rescue $191,710,052 $180,606,620 $203,940,509 $209,607,860 Portland Police Bureau $290,841,100 $276,521,494 $321,283,288 $319,575,757 Grand Total $552,449,234 $517,749,241 $608,025,301 $611,455,213 605

Parent: Public Safety