PORTLAND, Ore. -- After 10 shootings in one weekend last month in Portland, police just want local gangsters to "cool down" over Labor Day Weekend.
The mission will focus people who are illegally possessing guns or committing crimes while armed.
The Gang Enforcement Team partnered with the Hotspot Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), the Traffic Division, Transit Police, parole and gang outreach teams to be highly visible in "gang hotspots" across the city, Portland Police said Friday.
In the week ending on August 20, there were 10 gang-related shootings in the Portland Metro area.
None of them were fatal, but city officials remain alarmed by the activity. "I have never seen this level of violence erupt in such a short amount of time ever in my career," Sgt. Charlie Fender, with Portland's gang enforcement team, said in late August.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams later introduced five new proposals that he believes could control gang problems in the city and now he wants the public to share input. One would involve a curfew for juveniles who have violated gun laws.
Another recommendation was to create new penalties for people who fail to control children’s access to firearms or fail to report a theft or loss of a firearm.
Along with those initiatives, Adams also suggested increased penalties for people who are found in possession of loaded firearms without a concealed permit in public or while committing crimes. And Adams would like to exclude people who have violated gun laws from areas of the city where the use of guns is especially high.
A local gun lobbyist told KGW taht the proposals will not work.
"They are laughable and pathetic," Oregon Firearms Federation Director Kevin Starrett said in August, "That's what Sam Adams wants to do is to turn Portland into Chicago. More regulations and more crime."
The Crime Stoppers program was offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest in the cases and callers can remain anonymous. Call Crime Stoppers at 503-823-HELP (4357), leave a tip online at www.crimestoppersoforegon.com, or text 823HELP plus your tip and send it to CRIMES (274697).
KGW Reporter Randy Neves contributed to this report
