Amid calls by rioters to defund the police, the Portland Police Bureau spent $6.9 million on overtime over the span of just two months as a result of the ongoing often destructive and violent riots in the city, Breitbart reported.
According to Portland’s KATU News overtime spending in June and July skyrocketed 200% compared to the same time period last year when police spent $2.3 million.
After the death of George Floyd protests against “systemic racism” and police brutality have occurred every night in Portland since May 25.
According to authorities in Portland there were 59 people arrested during the riot that took place Saturday night and Sunday morning. Forty-three were processed by the Portland Police Bureau.
Data for August has yet to be provided, however the amount spent on overtime likely exceeds $7 million, according to the News outlet.
“The sharp uptick in overtime spending during June and July account for more than half of what police had spent on overtime throughout all of 2020. From January through the end of July, PPB spent $11.4 million on OT. Last year, through mid-July, police had spent $7.7 million.”
“KATU News asked PPB multiple times last week for comment, hoping to find out how the city can keep up these overtime costs but never heard back. On Monday, a PPB spokesperson cited Labor Day as the reason for not providing comment.”
Over the summer Portland City Council voted to cut $15 million from police funding in June and fell short of the $50 million demanded by activists.
Breitbart News reported, on July 1 the police bureau eliminated its Gun Violence Reduction Team at the direction of the city council — a move that coincided with “the highest number of murders in one month than has been seen in over 30 years.” Since the group was eliminated fifteen murders occurred in Portland in July 2020 and 63 shootings in the same month, up from the 28 seen in July 2019.