Two Portland police officers ended up hospitalized Thursday morning after a man attacked them during a homeless camp cleanup in Old Town, according to police. The confrontation unfolded around 10 a.m. near Northwest Flanders Street and Northwest Fifth Avenue as officers worked alongside city crews to clear the site. Both officers were treated for their injuries, which officials described as not life-threatening, and are expected to recover.
According to KPTV, the man whose campsite was being cleared assaulted the two officers during the operation. Officers ultimately arrested him, and he was taken to a hospital for evaluation. Police said the man also hurt himself sometime after the arrest, though the outlet's reporting does not detail how the assault, arrest, and self-inflicted injury unfolded in sequence.
Police Chief Says Officers Will Recover
Portland Police Chief Bob Day said both officers involved in the confrontation are going to be okay, per the same KPTV report. Day also noted that police officers can face unexpected dangers at any time, a comment offered in the aftermath of Thursday's incident. The cleanup itself was a joint effort, with the Portland Police Bureau's Central Precinct Neighborhood Response Team helping city workers clear the encampment before the attack occurred.
The Portland Police Bureau's Major Crimes Unit is now investigating the incident, and detectives are asking anyone with information to email [email protected], referencing case number 26-279416, the station's report notes.
Camp Sweeps Have Become a Near-Daily Routine
Thursday's incident happened against a backdrop of near-constant encampment removals across the city. Portland clears roughly 19 homeless encampments per day on average, according to the mayor's office, as cited by myfox8.com. Crews in the city of roughly 650,000 people have shut down nearly 5,000 camps since November 2022, even as residents continue reporting new clusters popping up.
Portland is far from alone in ramping up enforcement. Phoenix saw the number of encampments it swept soar past 3,000 in a recent year, up from 1,200 in 2019, myfox8.com reports. Las Vegas removed about 2,500 camps through September, compared with 1,600 in 2021, while Minneapolis recorded 44 camp removals through November 9, more than double the prior year's total, according to the same report.
