Sheriff’s office declines to arrest first person arrested by Portland police for violating city’s camping rules

Last Friday morning, the Portland Police Bureau made the first arrest under the city’s new time, place and conduct rules prohibiting camping on public rights-of-way. Officers arrested a man in Northeast Portland who allegedly refused repeated offers of a shelter bed and tiny house.

But when officers took the man to the Multnomah County Detention Center downtown, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office suspect intake personnel refused to process him.

A sheriff’s office spokesman, Deputy John Plock, says that’s because the sheriff’s office does not track people arrested for violating city ordinances – only those arrested for felonies or misdemeanors codified in the Oregon Revised Statutes. In other words, sheriff’s staff tracks people arrested for violating state law, but not city ordinances.

That’s according to an August 2023 directive from Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell, Pock says. That directive clarified the policy after the sheriff’s office narrowed the scope of crimes it would prosecute during the pandemic.

“We will continue to work with our agency partners to manage our prison’s inmate population while meeting public safety needs in communities across the country,” Plock wrote in an email.

Mike Benner, a police spokesman, said he “cannot comment on any discrepancies between the sheriff’s office and the city of Portland,” but confirmed that the man arrested was “cited and released” after the jail refused to accept him into custody.

“PPB officers simply made the arrest, and that is their role in this process,” says Benner. “PPB does not decide who gets arrested and who doesn’t.”

The City Council unanimously passed new time, place and behavior restrictions in May, and enforcement began on July 1. Anyone violating the city’s rules could be fined $100 or jailed for up to seven days, according to the new city ordinance.

Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.