‘Portland needs hope’: MultCo DA Schmidt focusing on theft, Measure 110
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt was elected in 2020 during a volatile time in Portland’s history.
Voters overwhelmingly elected Schmidt to replace Rod Underhill as the George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests put Portland in the national spotlight.
Touting “progressive values,” Schmidt is running for re-election against one of his own senior deputies, with a focus on auto and retail theft prosecutions, and advocating for changes to drug crimes as the Oregon legislature considers changes to voter-approved Measure 110.
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After creating two task forces to combat auto and retail theft, Schmidt says he hopes to see an emphasis on addressing these crimes for at least the next several years.
“What we’re doing is being responsive to some of the things that we’ve seen really impact our community. I’ve been talking to business leaders both small and large and hearing about how theft has impacted what they’re doing, and also hearing from their employees and how that makes them feel and how they feel at risk,” Schmidt said. “Same thing with automobile theft, I talk to victims and families who tell me about how when their car is stolen that’s their lifeline. They might not be able to get to work or take their kids to school.”
Over the last six months since the task forces were created, Schmidt says his office has seen positive results — recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stolen merchandise and recovering hundreds of cars.
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“We’re making great results but we’re only six months in right now. It’s budget season, so all of us at different heads of agencies are going to the county commission for our budgets, also working with city leaders, and I know they have tough decisions to make, but these are paying off, so we hope they’ll continue the funding,” Schmidt said.
A supporter of the drug de-criminalization Measure 110 when it was first proposed, Schmidt says he’s advocating for lawmakers to criminalize open drug use while balancing pathways to treatment and drug court.
“I’ve been very clear with the legislature that drugs having open use on our streets is not acceptable. And we put together a memo, put together by my prosecutors and my office, that they ought to make open use a criminal offense again with the goal, of course, again, to get people into treatment and resources,” Schmidt explained.
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“One of my big concerns is we still don’t have the treatment and resources that we need to get people referred to even when they want them,” he added.
Discussions around changing parts of Measure 110 come as a recent Oregon Health Authority study found the state needs 3,000 behavioral health treatment beds to close gaps in care, along with $500 million to expand treatment and meet future demand.
“I got to go down to the [Behavioral Health Resource Center] in Multnomah County, and I got to see this amazing relationship between resource providers, and police officers working together, and I think that’s where the future is, where we can have 24/7 response to get people into detox beds, into residential treatment beds, and having those resources available, that’s what the legislature needs to accomplish,” Schmidt said.
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The district attorney says he is also working to address a recent spike in gun violence in the county — noting his office is prosecuting more gun violence cases than ever before.
“The gun violence in our community has been absolutely tragic, and it doesn’t fall on our community equally. People in the Black community are more likely to be victims, people in the homeless community are more likely to be victims of gun violence. So, it’s an equity issue, as much as it is a public safety issue,” he explained.
“I’m very proud that we’ve been able to partner with OHSU and start the first-ever Homicide Review Commission. For decades, the NRA has been preventing research from happening on gun violence. When we’ve finally gotten some funding, and we can get the research set up, and we’re working with community members, religious leaders, epidemiologists, and law enforcement to go through the cases and see what can we learn, what can we do as policymakers to get in front of gun violence. I think any leader on this issue, you have to do both, you have to respond hold people accountable, but you have to be looking at the front end, how can we reduce these from happening in the first place?”
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With the election cycle in swing, the group People for Portland has recently put up billboards essentially blaming Schmidt for the state of the city.
His view on the billboards?
“Imagine having all of that money, but no solutions,” Schmidt said. “They are trying to divide people, they’re trying to scare people. It’s reminiscent of old political campaign attacks, the Willie Horton ads, things of that nature.”
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“They’re trying to divide us. I think Portland needs hope. We need the good stories to get out. People need to see what’s actually happening. We’re making progress,” Schmidt said.
He continued, “When I talk to grand jurors at the end of their sentence, they always say to me, they say, ‘I can’t believe all the work the police officers are doing, your prosecutors are doing, this is amazing. Why don’t we hear about this?’ Well, People for Portland don’t want people to hear about the good stories, they want to keep us divided, keep us angry, and that’s how they try to push people around.”
Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez is looking to unseat Schmidt — hoping to bring his 20 years of experience prosecuting what he calls “complex” cases to the table.
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Shortly after announcing his run, Vasquez told KOIN 6 News’ Eye on Northwest Politics, “If you look just purely at [Schmidt’s] record, he’s never tried a serious case, he’s never handled a homicide, he’s never done even really a complex or even really not a complex assault case. So, when we talk about him doing felony work, it’s very limited.”
In response, Schmidt says, “first of all, I’ve handled dozens of trials over my career, but the job of the Multnomah County District Attorney is not a trial attorney position. I run a 260-person law firm. My job is to set policy, to get budget.
“One of the things that I’m most proud of is when I took this agency over, we had 72 prosecuting attorneys. When I started as an intern in 2007, we had near 100. That’s a 30% reduction in our prosecutorial workforce in the 15 years between when I started and when I became district attorney. Today, it’s 97,” Schmidt stated. “We’ve almost got us back to where we were in just three short years. You do that by having relationships, that’s why I’m supported, endorsed, by legislators around the community, by our county commissioners, by the people that you need as an elected leader to help you get budget and build back resources.”
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Vying for re-election, Schmidt tells KOIN 6 News, “I got 77% of the vote because I talked about the issues that matter to Portlanders and Multnomah County residents. It’s about safety, it’s about doing things that make our system more efficient and more productive, so I’ll continue to do the work that we’ve done and setting up new treatment courts that are getting better recidivism rates than the alternatives of prison or just probation.”
“I’m also going to focus on specific issues like I’ve done over these last four years with auto theft and retail theft, domestic violence is an area that we can make improvements. We got a national grant, I have a technical assistance provider in my office, that’s very familiar with my office – helping us set up a pilot project for survivors of domestic violence. So, in the next term, I’ll continue to be responsive to the biggest needs of our community and doing it in a way that is consistent with what voters put me in this office to do in the first place.”
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