The Local Public Safety Coordinating Council (LPSCC) is spearheading Multnomah County's collaborative response to the State of Oregon's Justice Reinvestment efforts set forth in HB 3194. The goal of the State effort is to reduce prison use, reduce recidivism, increase public safety, return cost savings to Locals, and redeploy savings at the State level. Multnomah County (MC) is the largest population center in the State of Oregon. While MC utilizes prison at a lower proportionate rate, it commits the largest number of offenders to the Oregon Department of Corrections statewide.
Multnomah County faces several challenges in implementing its Justice Reinvestment strategies.
First, offenders with mental health concerns continue to utilize criminal justice and social services at an unsustainable rate. The County suffers a significant deficit in on demand mental health beds and step down services. Police Officers throughout the County often have no option but to take lower risk offenders to jail and find them back in hot spots once back on patrol. Offenders may be detained several times at significant cost before a Court Order continues detention or orders other intervention.
The County as a whole serves a significant homeless and transient population. There are a variety of possible explanations for Portland's large homeless population. These include a moderate climate, location on an Interstate that travels the entire West Coast, a perception that the area is progressive and accepting of diverse communities, court decisions that have found in favor of transient communities accessing all public spaces, as well as a significant number of community based providers serving the community. This challenge has resulted in the USDOJ requiring the City of Portland and its Police Bureau to make significant policing changes. The Police Bureau strongly feels the City has hit a negative tipping point based on calls and complaints. Services for the population suffers as does the business climate and quality of life for all residents. It is hoped that on site intervention, access to services and beds will help manage the population and restore livability.
It should be noted that the Police Bureau has implemented many evidence based approaches. Every Officers is trained on the Memphis Model but receives an additional 40 hours of training. The Bureau operates a Behavioral Health Unit pairing Officers with a Qualified Mental Health Professional which currently operates a full caseload of referrals from other Officer contacts. The Bureau also operates a Services Coordination Team which responds directly to calls and conducts regular patrol. Most recently, the Bureau implemented a low risk offender unit which patrols hot spots and transient gathering points. There are several unincorporated areas that face the same challlenges without the resources available to the City. It should also be noted that a significant amount of these resources are County funded.
Multnomah County seeks Peer to Peer assistance in designing, planning and sustaining a large scale jail diversion program such as implemented by Bexar County in San Antonio. Multnomah County seeks travel assistance for up to eight Local Executive level decision/policy makers and practitioners.
The second challenge for MC's Justice Reinvestment Project involves program evaluation, cost benefit analysis, data driven decision making and evaluation driven program design. MC has long sought to use data to inform decision making at the agency level and in policy-making. Justice Reinvestment requires that agencies collaborate, share information and data to identify cost drivers and demonstrate effective program investments. While most MC agencies have robust data collection systems, data analysts are isolated within agencies and often not included in practitioner discussions when designing programs. None of the agencies involved in this project employs an evaluation specialist or an individual with the skills to plan and monitor cost benefit analysis. This lack of cross agency analysis has delayed Justice Reinvestment efforts in anticipating our workloads and costs associated with proposed plans. For example, when separate agencies were asked to provide basic recidivism data, definitions and collected information varied so significantly that a staff person's regular workload was set aside in order to complete a hand count and collate the data.
Recently, MC implemented the Criminal Justice Think Tank which includes all county agencies involved in collecting and analyzing data for county agencies in contact with the criminal justice system. The group also includes analysts from Local law enforcement agencies and a community based service provider which houses a strong data unit. This group attempts to respond cross agency to data requests from Executive level practitioners and agency leadership in addition to an on going workload. Executive level policy makers also lack a fundamental understanding of data analysis and program evaluation and planning.
Multnomah County requests onsite and on going technical assistance in educating both the data group, County Executives and Executive Practitioners in this area. The group requests a joint primer session on data driven decision making, program evaluation and cost benefit analysis to inform Justice Reinvestment activities. The Criminal Justice Think Tank requests a more in depth on site training on program evaluation and cost benefit analysis as well as on going assistance in designing a roadmap for collaborative data analysis.
Elected County Executives, Executive practitioners including the Portland Police Chief, Justice Reinvestment stakeholder partners, Judges and County Department Heads
Please check the box next to the following questions if the answer is 'yes'.
Please enter the applicable Event Date if there is an Event associated with this TTA.
When entering an Event Date, the Time is also required.
If the TTA is targeted to a particular audience or location, please complete the questions below.
Milestones are an element, activity, work product, or key task associated with completing the TTA (e.g. kick-off meeting, collect data from stake holders, deliver initial data analysis).
Please complete the fields below, if applicable, to create a milestone for this TTA.
Please respond to the Performance Metrics below. The Performance Metrics questions are based on the TTA Type indicated in the General Information section of the TTA.
2. On site program evaluation and cost benefit analysis training will elevate data analyst and practitioner skill sets in designing, implementing and operating cost effective, evidence based criminal justice practices and programs. Joint training will develop collaboration within agencies and amongst criminal justice stakeholders. On going assistance to the criminal justice data think tank will develop expertise and increase reliance on data in planning criminal justice practices and programming.
Senate Bill 1145 (1995) established LPSCCs in each of Oregon’s 36 counties for the express purpose of “coordinat[ing] local criminal justice policy among affected criminal justice entities” (ORS 423.560); SB 1145 funding is used to staff the Council.
Mission
The Multnomah County’s Local Public Safety Council (LPSCC) has a three-part mission:
1. Governmental Coordination
The central purpose of LPSCC is to coordinate the public safety plans, policies, operations & strategies of local government agencies to improve the local public safety system’s cost-effectiveness & responsiveness to the needs of the community.
2. Collaborative Leadership
To accomplish this goal, LPSCC convenes leaders from local governments, public safety, social service & education agencies, private service providers & local communities throughout the County to collaborate on the development of
solutions to problems in the intergovernmental operation of the public safety system,
coordinated policies to improve that system, and
use evidence-based strategies to address critical issues affecting community safety.
3. Research & Analysis
To guide & support LPSCC’s efforts & to ensure its plans, policies & strategies are cost-effective & evidence-based, LPSCC’s staff:
surveys & evaluates the latest research in public safety policies & strategies,
oversees the operation of “DSS-Justice,” the County’s public safety data warehouse & decision support system, and
provides analysis of issues relating to the cost-effectiveness & responsiveness of the local public safety system.
Please submit a signed letter of support from your agency’s executive or other senior staff member. The letter can be emailed to or uploaded with this request. The letter should be submitted on official letterhead and include the following information:
- General information regarding the request for TTA services, i.e., the who, what, where, when, and why.
- The organizational and/or community needs specific to the request for TTA services.
- The benefits or anticipated outcomes from the receipt of TTA services.
By submitting this application to BJA NTTAC, I understand that upon approval of this application for TTA, the requestor agrees to keep BJA NTTAC informed of any circumstances that may impact the delivery of the TTA, including changes in the date of the event, event cancellation, or difficulties communicating with the assigned TTA provider.
Please call [site:phone] if you need further assistance completing this application.
Providers selected for consideration (previously 'Selected Providers' field):
Selected Provider 1: Roger Przybylski
Bid: 19280.80
Chosen Provider: Roger Przybylski