Gang Task Force Adds Evening Meetings in North and East Portland

 UPDATE: On Tuesday April 3, Mayor Adams will join Portland Police precinct Commander Michael Leloff in leading a neighborhood walk along N. Albina and N. Killingsworth streets from 2:15 - 3:15 p.m.
Portland's gang violence task force is adding evening meetings in North and East Portland, so more people can attend.

"These are meetings for interested citizens, business people, neighborhood associations, and social service providers serving youth and families," says Tom Peavey, the former police officer who helps run the city's Office of Youth Violence Prevention.

"It's a meeting for the community to talk about issues that are important to them. The mayor's office will be represented and we will bring information from the gang violence task force to those meetings."

The next two scheduled North/Northeast meetings will be held from 6-8 p.m. April 17 and May 15 at Jefferson High School in the Blazers hospitality committee room. That meeting will be called the North/Northeast Neighborhoods Violence Prevention Committee and will meet on the third Tuesday of each month. UPDATE June 11: Crime Prevention staff say that from June going forward, the meeting will be on the last Tuesday of each month. The June meeting will be held in North police precinct.

The East Portland meetings are set for 6-8 p.m. April 18 and May 16 at Papa's Pizza parlor, 16321 S.E. Stark St. Named the East Portland Neighborhood Violence Prevention Committee that meeting will be held on the third Wednesday of every month.

This weekend saw the 31st gang call out in Portland in 2012, compared to 103 call outs for the whole of 2011.

The last meeting of the task force, Friday March 30, included updates by organizations serving youth. The Stryve team, funded at Multnomah County Health through a national grant, sent a team of young people out last week to interview youth.