Portland struggles to find officers for gun violence unit: Union rep slams city's liberal leaders

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Portland police seeing officer shortages as gun violence rocks the city

Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner joins to discuss why crime is surging in Portland

Portland police are struggling to find officers willing to serve on its newly resurrected gun violence unit, which was dismantled over a year ago at the height of widespread protests fueled by the Black Lives Matter movement

Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner joined "Fox & Friends First" Tuesday, and spoke about the struggle to fill the void in the police department.  

"The officers have not been supported by elected officials, by our city council," Turner told host Jillian Mele. 

PORTLAND POLICE'S NEWLY RESURRECTED GUN VIOLENCE TEAM CAN'T FIND OFFICERS TO FILL UNIT: REPORT

Portland has seen 53 homicides so far this year, putting it on track to pass the all-time high of 70 in 1987. Turner spoke about the ongoing gun violence in the city saying, "We have shootings every night almost. We had a mass shooting two weeks ago where an 18-year-old lady was killed. We are trying to hold down the fort the best we can. Elected officials are not taking accountability for what they’ve done and totally putting the team back together to be proactive."

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"Over a year ago, we were defunded over $20 million and many staffing positions and one of those staffing positions or many of the staffing positions was the gun violence reduction team which was a model in the nation in … what they did, taking guns off the streets." he said. 

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Turner was asked how long it would take the police force in Portland to recover from the turbulent year and bring crime under control.

"We're not going to put a lid on this unless they effectively allow the police bureau to do their job the way we’ve done our job in the past. If they want accountability, the things they want to stop, the gun violence, they have to allow us to do our job effectively," he said.