May 27, 2024
In several acts of what the Portland Police Bureau are referring to as "gunfire vandalism," someone is driving around and shooting at automated enforcement cameras.
In a statement Thursday, the PPB said the suspect has fired a handgun at "city equipment" at least seven times and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. While they didn't mention what type of city equipment is being targeted, it's very obvious what's going on based on a video released by PPB in an effort to track down the shooter.
In a PPB video from May 27th around 5:10 am, a man is shown driving on SE Washington through the intersection of 103rd. When he see the traffic camera just east of the southeast corner, he hits the brakes, swerves over and parks in the bike lane, hops out, draws his weapon, aims it high, fires off three shots, then runs back to his car and drives away.
There's a Portland Bureau of Transportation "intersection safety camera" at that exact spot. The camera snaps photos and sends citations in the mail to folks who run the light and/or speed. It was installed within the last year and is one of 27 automated enforcement cameras currently operated by PBOT (with more on the way).
It's a setback for a program that was beset by delays for years due to what city officials said were delays in procurement and problems with the vendor. It was only last fall when the logjam broke and a flood of new cameras were able to hit the streets.
Most of the revenue from the citations (around 70%) goes to the State of Oregon. Of the money that does come to the City of Portland, most of it goes back into maintaining and operating the system.
Found on Mainstream Media