Portland Police Bureau Chief Bob Day (right) addresses the media on Aug. 1, 2024 about an upcoming illegal street event occurring on the weekend. Local police have tried to counter a rise in illegal street takeovers in recent years.
Joni Land / OPB
This week, a coalition of over 100 elected officials, arts organizations, labor unions and chambers of commerce signed a letter urging calm and “thoughtful civic engagement” on election day, and to preserve the “hard-won but still fragile progress” in Downtown Portland.
Amid rising concerns about possible civil unrest next week, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said there would be increased police presence, with officers canceling days off and working 12-hour shifts. A special unit of officers under the recently reconstituted Rapid Response Team will also be deployed for crowd control. Portland Police Chief Bob Day joins us to share more details about the agency’s preparedness for election day, what lessons it learned from its response to the 2020 racial justice protests and an update on what the police know about the suspected arsonist who placed incendiary devices into ballot boxes in Portland and Vancouver recently.
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