A rise in crime during the pandemic across most of Oregon’s largest cities — including Portland — is abating, according to a new state analysis of preliminary federal crime data.
From 2021 to 2022 across the state’s largest cities, violent crime dropped a combined 8.8% and property crime decreased by 2.6%.
The report, released this week, was compiled by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a state agency that helps develop criminal justice policy and is a statewide clearinghouse for criminal justice data. The agency examined data in Bend, Eugene, Gresham, Hillsboro, Portland and Salem, and based its analysis on the FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2022, which the federal government released last month. Oregon’s statewide figures could shift as the FBI releases data that includes the rest of the state later this year.
“There are indicators that crime is either plateauing or maybe beginning to come down after a pretty significant increase that we’ve seen over the past year to year and a half,” said Ken Sanchagrin, executive director of the Criminal Justice Commission.
Sanchagrin said the 2022 data suggests crime levels could soon return to pre-pandemic levels.
“It takes additional data points and time to pass before we can determine whether that’s a trend or not,” he said, “but at least it seems like it’s good news compared to what we’ve seen over the past couple cycles.”
The FBI data captures a portion of the violent and property crime in Oregon. It’s meant to be compared statewide and nationally. The FBI defines violent crime as rape, murder, robbery and aggravated assault. It classifies property crime as motor vehicle theft, burglary and larceny-theft.
“These are very specific types of crime,” Sanchagrin said. “If we’re talking about other types of crime that certainly have worried folks in local areas connected to housing or health, public order crime, those types of things are not included. These are more serious crimes overall that we’re talking about. It’s positive that they’re going down, but it also doesn’t include everything that certainly is part of the policy discussion right now.”
The commission’s report noted the decrease in violent crime was “largely influenced by significant decreases in Bend, Eugene and Portland.”
In Eugene, violent crime decreased nearly 18% and property crime decreased 15.8%. Like in Portland, where a quarter of the state’s population lives, there is a perception in Eugene that crime is worsening.
“Things like graffiti (which has increased) and panhandlers do decrease the feeling of safety among downtown residents and workers,” Eugene Police spokesperson Melinda McLaughlin wrote in an email. She said the city is improving lighting and adding cameras downtown “to both improve safety and the perception of safety with downtown constituents.”
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