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Last Friday morning, the Portland Police Bureau made its first arrest under the city’s new time, place and manner rules, which restrict camping in public rights of way. Officers arrested a man in Northeast Portland who allegedly refused repeated offers of a shelter bed or stay at a tiny home.
But when officers transported the man to the Multnomah County Detention Center downtown, sheriff’s office personnel who book suspects declined to process him.
A spokesman for the sheriff’s office, Deputy John Plock, says that’s because the county jail does not book people who are arrested for violating city ordinances—just those arrested for felonies or misdemeanor offenses codified in Oregon Revised Statutes. In other words, the sheriff’s staff books people arrested for violating state laws but not city rules.
That’s per a directive that Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell issued in August 2023, Plock says. That directive clarified policy after the sheriff’s office narrowed the scope of offenses it would book for during the pandemic.
“We will continue working with our agency partners to approach and manage our jail’s population while balancing the public safety needs in communities across the county,” Plock wrote in an email.
Mike Benner, a spokesman for the Police Bureau, says he “can’t speak to any sort of disconnect between the sheriff’s office and the city of Portland,” but confirms that the man arrested was “cited and released” after the jail declined to book him.
“PPB officers simply made the arrest, which is their role in this process,” Benner says. “PPB doesn’t make decisions about who’s booked and who isn’t.”
The Portland City Council unanimously approved the new time, place and manner restrictions in May. Enforcement began July 1. Those who violate the city’s rules, according to the new city code, may be sentenced to a $100 fine or up to seven days in jail.
Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.