For the first time in nearly four years, members of the Local Public Safety Coordinating Council (LPSCC) executive committee met in person. The Nov. 27 meeting in the Multnomah Building boardroom — focused on reviewing justice data and ways to use it effectively — marked a shift away from the virtual meetings that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several new executive committee members were in attendance, including Health Department Director Rachel Banks, Portland Police Chief Bob Day and soon-to-be new Chief Criminal Judge Michael Greenlick.
The day’s discussion about sharing, using and learning collaboratively from data and metrics about the local justice system “is a really good topic for us to be in person for," said Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, who also serves as chair of the council.
But she also acknowledged that the trustworthiness of data can’t always be taken for granted, which is why it’s critical to make sure the data is reliable.
“It’s important to have these conversations, examine reports with a critical eye and have transparent dashboards for the public," she said.
Access to data
Abbey Stamp, LPSCC’s executive director, walked committee members through the evolution of the County’s data collection processes over the years.
The Decision Support System-Justice (DSS-J) is a data warehouse that was created with public safety levy funds, said Stamp. However, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Oregon State Police, the LPSCC, as defined by Oregon Statute, is not covered through Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS). This limitation inhibits the LPSCC from having law enforcement data such as arrest data.
Despite those limitations, criminal justice analysts continue to collaborate above and beyond what the data warehouse offers. And because each criminal justice agency also has its own dashboard, Stamp continued, the group would take time to review the kinds of information each agency tracks, then have a discussion about the kinds of data the council is most interested in studying.
Representatives from Portland Police Bureau, Gresham Police, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon Judicial Department and the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission provided overviews of their respective dashboards. The slate of presenters covered numerous aspects of the criminal justice system, ranging from interactive sites on Portland Police dispatched calls and crime statistics to the District Attorney’s Office Prosecutorial Performance Indexes and gun crimes, to the jail statistics from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and statewide court data.
“As a former legislator, understanding that there’s limitations in terms of the available data that LPSCC has access to is an obstacle to having the full picture of what’s happening in our justice system,” said Chair Vega Pederson.
“Are there things that are missing or things that you would ideally have, but you don’t have a way of getting that data?” she asked.
Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell shared that her office would take the next year to assess what’s missing in their public-facing dashboards and what they should be adding monthly, quarterly or annually.
Morrisey O’Donnell also mentioned the importance of having in-house data on civil processes to assess resource needs to ensure timely responses, especially when dealing with protection orders.
Multnomah County Trial Court Administrator Barbara Marcille also highlighted data needs. “Multnomah County's data is vastly larger compared to other jurisdictions in the state. We constantly are looking at ways to provide context and additional nuance of what happens here.”
Public education surrounding data
The executive committee also spent time discussing current concerns, including the closure of retail or grocery stores due to theft and the resulting unemployment that can perpetuate cycles of crime, to the need for more resources for victims and survivors of domestic violence, including those experiencing homelessness or with developmental disabilities.
Portland Police Chief Day expressed the need for more investments and greater awareness of those impacted by the justice system to mitigate the harm they incur.
We’re hearing loud and clear from the victims in that conversation that I think have been left out of the data,” he said.
Attendees also emphasized the importance of improving public awareness of criminal justice data.
Judge Judith Matarrazo, the Presiding Judge of the Multnomah County Circuit Court, shared an anecdote from a recent court hearing, when a juror questioned the existence of facts.
Matarrazo recalled the juror saying that while you may think there are facts, there are no facts to them; it’s a matter of what anybody chooses to believe. “If that's the perception, it’s hard to gain trust. Here’s what the data says and here’s what we’re doing.”
“I think public trust is probably at an all-time low," she said.
“I think we have to be careful when dealing with data because data can be used in lots of different ways,” Matarrazo said. “I would like to see us concentrate on educating the public because it concerns me that there’s lots of different viewpoints — which is a good thing and data is great — but you can pull data to show anything you want to show in some respects.”
“There’s been a lot of really valid points around the information we’re sharing, and perception, and what’s really happening in our community and how that’s impacting our community members,” said Sheriff Morrisey O’Donnell. “Where this group has been successful is choosing some goals or areas we really want to make an impact in the system as a whole, getting our resources, using our data resources.”
Watch the full meeting here.
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