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‘We’re triaging’: Cops combat violent crime as ranks dwindle

LA CAN outreach worker and human rights organizer, Steve Richardson, who goes by General Dogon, reaches out to homeless people in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles Friday, July 22, 2022. In Los Angeles, which is down 650 officers from its pre-pandemic staffing, units that deal with homeless outreach and animal cruelty are shuttered and human trafficking, narcotics and gun details have been downsized. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Tents line the streets of Skid Row area of Los Angeles Friday, July 22, 2022. In Los Angeles, which is down 650 officers from its pre-pandemic staffing, units that deal with homeless outreach and animal cruelty are shuttered and human trafficking, narcotics and gun details have been downsized. “Police should be nowhere around outreach. You can’t be the provider of services as well as the jailer,” said Pete White, the founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network. “My hope ... is that those resources that go to the police department are actually pointed towards real solutions.” (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) LA CAN outreach worker and human rights organizer, Steve Richardson, who goes by General Dogon, reaches out to homeless people in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles Friday, July 22, 2022. “Police should be nowhere around outreach. You can’t be the provider of services as well as the jailer,” said Pete White, the founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network. “My hope ... is that those resources that go to the police department are actually pointed towards real solutions.” (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) LA CAN outreach worker and human rights organizer, Steve Richardson, who goes by General Dogon, describes the open door policy of his organization in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles Friday, July 22, 2022. In Los Angeles, which is down 650 officers from its pre-pandemic staffing, units that deal with homeless outreach and animal cruelty are shuttered and human trafficking, narcotics and gun details have been downsized. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Mary Elledge, head of the greater Portland chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, looks at the name of her son, Rob, on a memorial in Oregon City, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Elledge, whose son was murdered in 1986 and the case unresolved for months, is opposed to resources being taken from cold case units to address rising homicides. "The unsolved cases are where I see so much sadness," Elledge said of the families she works with. "When they don’t get an answer, it’s like nobody cares and they never find out what happened." (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) The exhaust pipe of an abandoned car missing its catalytic converter, rests on the ground in Philadelphia, Thursday, July 14, 2022. Officers normally assigned to a unit that deals with livability issues like graffiti, nuisance businesses and abandoned cars have been shifted to the city center and violent hot spots around Philadelphia, where the homicide rate reached a record high last year. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Kimberly Washington, executive director of the Frankford Community Development Corporation, and who has worked with community members to address abandoned cars, poses for a portrait on a street frequently used to discard cars in Philadelphia, Thursday, July 14, 2022. The abandoned cars bring “trash in the areas, then you know other crimes, quality of life issues, drug dealing, shootings, killings,” says Washington. “This starts to look like the place where this can all go down because no one cares.” (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) A burned out car sits on the side of the road in Philadelphia, Thursday, July 14, 2022. Officers normally assigned to a unit that deals with livability issues like graffiti, nuisance businesses and abandoned cars have been shifted to the city center and violent hot spots around Philadelphia, where the homicide rate reached a record high last year. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Gresham Police Sgt. Travis Garrison, left, and Officer Ryan Gomez look inside a vehicle during a traffic stop in Gresham, Ore., Thursday, July 21, 2022. Gresham, a Portland suburb, has seen an increase in fatal shootings and gun violence at the same time as it has a shortage of officers. To address the situation, the department has shut down all of its specialized units except for its mental health unit and shifted all of its detectives to work homicides. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) Gresham Police Sgt. Travis Garrison runs an ID and insurance check in Gresham, Ore., Thursday, July 21, 2022. Gresham, a Portland suburb, has seen an increase in fatal shootings and gun violence at the same time as it has a shortage of officers. To address the situation, the department has shut down all of its specialized units except for its mental health unit and shifted all of its detectives to work homicides. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) Royal Harris, talks to his grandson, Carter, 2, at Woodlawn Park in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Harris, who has lost friends and family to Portland's gang violence, says he supports diverting resources from cold case units to address spiking gun violence in the city. "If the case has been cold for five years and you've got a case that's two days old, which do you have the biggest capacity to find the answer for? I'm going to go with the new (one)," Harris says. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) Royal Harris, pushes his grandson, Carter, 2, on swings at Woodlawn Park in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Harris, who has lost friends and family to Portland's gang violence, says he supports diverting resources from cold case units to address spiking gun violence in the city. "If the case has been cold for five years and you've got a case that's two days old, which do you have the biggest capacity to find the answer for? I'm going to go with the new (one)," Harris says. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) Jeremiah King, who is transitioning out of homelessness, grimaces in pain as he shows the bandage on a gunshot wound as he sits on the street after his hospital release in Portland, Ore., on July 27, 2022. King's assailant has not been arrested. “He turned around and pulled a pistol out and I didn’t see it. I didn’t feel anything at first but 10 seconds later I could hardly breathe,” King said as he sat on street after three nights in a hospital. “I thought I was going to pass away.” (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus) George Spaulding shows his tattoo of one of the favorite phrases of his son, Brian, in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Brian Spaulding was killed in 2017 and the case remains open. "They are just overwhelmed. It's insane, it's totally insane," George says of the detective handling his son's case. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) Carolyn and George Spaulding look at family photos in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Their son, Brian, was killed in 2017 and the case remains open. "You want to help but you can't help because it's already done. Your motherhood just sort of stops at that point. You can't mother him because he's not there to mother," she said of the shock of finding her son's body. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) A photo of Brian Spaulding sits on the porch of his parent's home Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. He was killed in 2017 and the case remains open. The detective assigned to investigate the death of Spaulding, a chiropractic assistant who didn’t do drugs, wasn’t in a gang and lived close to the house where he was born, left in 2020 in a wave of retirements and the detective assigned to it now is swamped with fresh cases after Portland’s homicide rate surged 207% since 2019. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer) George, right, and Carolyn Spaulding hold an old family photo showing their son, Brian, in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Five years after Brian's parents found him fatally shot in the home he shared with roommates, his slaying remains a mystery that seems increasingly unlikely to be solved as Portland police confront a spike in killings and more than 100 officer vacancies. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)