December 21, 2025 • 30 mins
The Domicile Unknown Report details how homeless people in Multnomah County died and how those deaths could have been prevented. The Oregon Legislature will examine a bill next year concerning Automated License Plate Reader technology and how the data is accessed.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to local voices. I'm brad for this week. Mulam
County's Domicila Known Report will explore the reasons why homeless
people die about thirty years early and how those deaths
can be prevented. The Oregon legislature will examine automated license
plate reader technology next year and how to protect yourself
from a porch pirate. Vulam County released the Domicila Known
(00:27):
Report on Friday. It details the causes of death for
homeless people in the county. Mulam County Board of Commissioners
Chair Jessica Vega Peterson says these are preventable deaths.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The fact remains that far too many people are dying
while experiencing homelessness, reflecting the harsh conditions those living on
the street's face every single day. Fentanyl in particular, continues
to devastate our community. While unacceptably high, the eighteen percent
decrease in deaths from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty
(01:01):
four provides some hope that our investments to grow a
continuum of homelessness and behavioral health services are making a
difference and saving lives. And critically, it reflects the steadfast
work we've done as a community to support housing and
recovery services for thousands of people each year. I hope
(01:24):
this downward trend signals that we've moved out of the
toughest days of the fentanyl epidemic that we have worked
so hard to respond to. We know the risk that
our unhoused neighbors face, and this report should serve to
galvanize our commitment to interventions that address those risks, safe
and stable housing and shelter with services attached, and increased
(01:48):
access to behavioral and physical health care. We must continue
to apply lessons learned and do all we can to
ensure that the decrease that we're seeing this year is
continued year after year. I know that my board colleagues
share our commitment to building a strong system of care
for people struggling with substance use disorder, irrespective of their
(02:10):
housing status, but especially for those in the most vulnerable
situations in our community. Maltnahma County is committed to the
work to continue this downward trend.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Doctor Amalay Mossidas is the Maultnoma County Health Department's Epidemiology Manager.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
The numbers in this report represent the tragic loss of
life at an intersection of factors, most of which are prevncable.
Each data point that I'll talk about here represents a
person that our community has lost. For twenty twenty four,
this included three hundred and seventy two people who died
while experiencing homelessness in Moltnoma County. For the past three years.
(02:50):
In this report, we have been able to compile data
from both medical examiner investigations and from death certificates that
were overseen by healthcare providers. The most recent year that
we have finalized data from is twenty twenty four, which
is represented in the report that we released today. Fortunately,
the three hundred and seventy two deaths in twenty twenty
(03:12):
four represent a decline from the four hundred and fifty
six deaths in twenty twenty three, which was the highest
number of deaths since the report began in twenty eleven. However,
the deaths in twenty twenty four still are the highest
since twenty eleven except for twenty twenty three. The majority
of people who died while experiencing homelessness were reported to
(03:35):
be male between the ages of thirty five and forty four.
The majority were white but as a result of social
and structural determinants related to housing and health, there was
an overrepresentation of black and African American and American Indian,
and Alaska Native people among those who died. The largest
category of causes of death in twenty twenty four was
(03:57):
unintentional injury, which includes overdose. In twenty twenty three, we
had seen the peak in overdose deaths among people experiencing homelessness,
with two hundred and eighty two deaths. Although the number
decreased in twenty twenty four, there were still two hundred
and fourteen deaths due to overdose. Unintentional injury also includes
(04:19):
traffic fatalities. There were three fewer traffic fatalities identified in
twenty twenty four, for a total of nineteen deaths, compared
to twenty twenty three, where there were twenty two deaths.
The majority of these were among pedestrians and cyclists. The
leading causes of death among those deaths that were overseen
(04:39):
by medical providers were cancer and heart disease, which are
the same too leading causes of death for our county. Overall,
homelessness itself has continued to rise over time, which is
especially apparent as the Moltnomah County Homeless Services Department continues
to gather more complete, in depth data. The data that
(05:02):
we provide shows the risks associated with homelessness. We see
that overall, the risk of death due to any cause
is six times higher for people experiencing homelessness in Moltnoma
County than the general population.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Doctor Richard Bruno is Multo mccatty's health officer.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
I want to point out a few trends that doctor
Messidas mentioned that kind of mirror national trends in terms
of deaths by people experiencing homelessness. Those really include higher
risks of death among those who are male aged thirty
five to forty four and those who have disabilities. And
there's also similar drivers that are unintentional injury, mostly from
(05:44):
substance use in traffic fatalities, as well as chronic diseases
like cancer and heart disease. It's worth highlighting that in
twenty twenty four we saw an eighteen percent reduction in
those people experiencing homelessness deaths and from the year before,
and some of the those can be attributed to decreased
tests from substance use and traffic fatalities. And gun homicides,
(06:06):
and because those home overdose deaths decreased from two hundred
and eighty two to two hundred and fourteen last year,
we wanted to look at what was really driving those overdoses,
and the majority of those overdose deaths folks had used
both fentanyl and methamphetamines, so we figured those are to
(06:27):
the largest contributors to those overdoses and continue to inform
the need for dual diagnosis treatments. And although we've seen
some delays in the past for toxicology results, we're placing
new pilots in place to create faster work clothes in
our Medical Examiner's office to be able to identify those
(06:47):
more quickly and be able to assign those deaths and
bring closure to those family members those who've died. The
traffic fatalities, you know, those folks who had experienced homelessness
had a fifty four times greater risk of death from
traffic fatalities than the general population, and that was especially
true during times of low light, like before dawn and
(07:09):
after dusk. Those people are really we're dying simply trying
to exist and navigate within our county. So we're really
working on more coordinated urban planning interventions with our transportation
partners to ensure that we can continue to see decrease
traffic fatalities next year. Early evidence suggests that these interventions
(07:31):
are working. I'll highlight five main programs that have shown
promising results since twenty twenty four. The first was the
ninety d Fentanyl Emergency Declaration that happened between February and
April of last year that really set into place a
lot of interagency collaboration and coordination, sharing data, and presenting
those data publicly. So you can still go to our
(07:52):
website and see our fentanyl overdose dashboard, which has information
from five different agencies those trends and how they've been
improving over the last two years. Next is the overdose
Prevention and Response Plan that the Health Department released, which
really highlighted prevention, harm, reduction, treatment, and recovery options for
people with substance use disorder. We distributed fifty thousand doses
(08:15):
in a loxown last year and expanded our medication for
Opioid use disorder options in our clinics and our jails,
including long acting injectable Groupernorphan, which helped support people for
a month at a time. Next was the Homeless Response
Action Plan the h RAP, which really coordinated a strategic
attempt to improve our region's housing stability, and we've recognized
(08:41):
over ten thousand folks being able to access shelter and
over six thousand folks being able to leave homelessness for housing,
over one thousand shelter beds coming online, more site acquisition,
as well as improving the services available at those shelters
to bridge to longer term housing, and the goal is
really to also prevent hospital and jail discharges to the street.
(09:03):
Next was the Pathway Center for Deflection, and it's also
a place where people got needed services and got connected
to care. Over the last year and a half, over
four hundred people have engaged in services since it's opened,
and over half of those clients received. Over half of
those clients served reported being unsheltered at the time of service,
(09:24):
with top referrals going to substance use disorder treatment and housing.
And lastly, I want to highlight the mobile van services
that expanded under the funding from House Bill Fourenty fifty two,
which really attempt to provide low barrier access to medical, dental,
substance use and wound care services in the field and
really help avoid downstream er visits and hospitalizations. And many
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of the van services that have opened include our County
Vans and our partners like Central City Concern, Cascadia New
Season Methadone Clinic, among many others. I just want to say,
as a family physician who's cared for many of the
folks who experienced houselessness. Each of the three hundred and
seventy two folks that we discuss in this report have
(10:09):
separate stories and have separate reasons that brought them to
early mortality. But we're really grateful that the families of
Tony and Sammy and Ben were willing to give their
insights into their lives and the situations that led to
their early deaths. Because the average life expectancy among those
who died in twenty twenty four who were experiencing homelessness
(10:31):
was forty six, which is nearly thirty years early than
the general population. As doctor Mesitis mentioned, someone who's experiencing
homelessness has a six times increased mortality rate, and so
we can call houselessness a major medical condition. I want
to encourage us not to be indifferent to these numbers
and difference is really not an option. We really must
(10:53):
explicitly work to prevent these deaths in our communities.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Paul Susci is the director of the Vendor program at
Street Roots. It's a newspaper produced and sold by people
who are homeless.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
I want to underscore here that this important work captures
specific data, and it's critical to have that information as
we collectively make decisions for the health and safety of
our larger communities. But this data masks the real stories
and identities of the people that they represent. And this
(11:24):
data exists in a really specific moment in time that
doesn't keep up with current circumstances. Since I joined Street
Routes as Vendor program director in July of this year,
I have witnessed six deaths in our community of vendors.
Some were folks living in supportive housing or hospice programs.
(11:45):
Some were living in the tents and sleeping bags that
are so conspicuously intolerable to so many members of our community.
Just yesterday, we hosted a memorial service at Street Routes
for two trans Indivis Jewels who passed from overdose. A
third member of that small family survived the same substances
(12:08):
and came to us to hold a memorial space for
them since no one else in the community would do so.
Another person was a longtime vendor and board member of
street Routes formerly homeless, and her passing has deeply rocked
her family, her community of neighbours and customers at PSU's
(12:30):
Saturday farmer Market, Farmer's Market, and her own faith community.
I mention these small, localized anecdotes because homelessness is not tense.
It's not garbage, it's not needles on the ground or
sleeping bags in your doorways. These are human beings. We
(12:51):
are human beings with dignity, love, histories, communal and familial
ties amongst all of us. You can't simply wearhouse people
against their will and with whole tents and sleeping bags,
and thereby assume that the problem is going away. We
(13:11):
are your family members, your students, your neighbors, your elders.
We share your faiths and your dreams, your disciplines and
your accomplishments. If this data indicates anything, it's that our
community's significant investments over the last several years are now
(13:31):
beginning to make a difference in the lethality of living
on the streets of Portland. Speaking as a former homeless
shelter manager myself, I can with confidence say that what
we truly need are more supportive housing programs, more peer
support and outreach programs, and yes, more tents and more
(13:52):
sleeping bags. These clearly do more to keep people alive
than simply trashing everyone's longings and shuffling people from one
undesired location to another and issuing one hundred dollars citations
that no one can afford to pay. Please everyone, please
review this data carefully. Please consider yourself in this data,
(14:18):
your loved ones, your family members. You if you lost
everything and had to survive outside, what are the programs
and resources that you would seek and how long would
you last until you became another statistic.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Drew Grabham as director of Outreach Services for Central City
Concern and says the Homeless Day of Remembrance will be
held tonight on the longest night of the year.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
We will be gathering together as a community and reading
off some of the names and talking about some of
the stories of some of our loved ones that came around.
Everyone is invited to come or to gather names to
be shared.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
There.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
We find it really important to come together as a
community to sort of remember our friends, remember and laugh
together about the funny things that they did, and grieve
the loss of these folks, and to continue to say
their names so that we remember how important they were
to our community. We're also coming because us, as some
of us providers, need to mourn and grieve and care
(15:20):
for ourselves. So this is a part of our own
self care that we do, and we're really honored to
come together. There's ten organizations that have put this together
on We will have singing and dance and food and
other gatherings together, so if you would like to come,
please join us.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
The Homeless Day of Remembrance will be held tonight at
five pm at Saint Andre Bassett Catholic Church at sixth
at West Burnside and Portland. You can read the twenty
twenty five Domicile Unknown Report on the moltnom County website.
The Oregon Legislator is expected to consider regulations on automated
license plate reader technology during next year's session. It's become
(15:57):
controversial because federal agents if banks the data for immigration investigations.
Kevin Campbell, Executive director of the Association of chase of
police explains how they work.
Speaker 7 (16:07):
ALPR is not new. It's been used for decades in Oregon,
in states around the United States and frankly around the
globe to help interdict criminal activity and to help generate
leads and close cases. In Oregon, alprd's deployed in two
main primary ways. The first is fixed cameras mounted on
(16:30):
infrastructure such as traffic signals, bridges, and light poles, and
then the second is mobile cameras installed on patrol vehicles.
The Oregon State Police, for interests, just deployed ALPR and
all of their patrol vehicles around the state. Let me
talk briefly about what ALPR captures. ALPR record a record
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has created when a camera detects and reads a license plate,
generating a concise set of information. Each record includes a
cropped image of the plate, the date and time of
the detection, the GPS location or fixed camera site where
it occurred, and the translated plate number and issuing state.
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It may also include a limited scene image showing just
enough of the vehicles such as bumper light, general color
to confirm the accuracy of the read. ALPR cameras capture
only what an officer could observe in public view, and
the technology is intentionally designed to limit information to plate
recognition ALPR systems are used. The data is used in
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two different ways. The first is what i'll call real
time alerts, often called a hit list. The hit list
is a narrow, purpose built set of license plate tied
to specific public safety alerts. When a camera scans a plate,
it automatically checks it against federal NCIC databases and Oregon
(18:02):
LEADS database, and only notifies law enforcement if there is
a match a match to the list of crimes that
it's supposed to be looking for. So typical hit list
categories include stolen vehicles, felony or violent crime suspects, amber alerts,
missing or endangered persons, and vehicles linked to active investigations.
(18:28):
The system does not track vehicles. It simply compares to
each scan of the list and provides an alert of
appropriate for investigations. Historical ALPR detections help confirm or refute leads,
identify patterns, place vehicles at key locations, and pinpoint potential
addresses or travel habits. This information strengthens cases and speeds investigations,
(18:53):
and data not only tied to an active case is
subject to strict retention limits, typically thirty days. Importantly, ALPR
data is only queried when directly relevant to an active
investigation or to locating a suspect or a vulnerable person.
It's also important to know what ALPR does not do.
(19:13):
Unlike surveillance surveillance tools to track people continuously, ALPR does
not monitor continuous movements. It's more like following breadcrumbs. It
doesn't reveal private associations or record private conversations. Technologies such
as GPS tracking or sell site data they do generate
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detailed records of a person's movements and require warrants for
that reason. In contrast, ALPR produces isolated data points a
vehicle on a public road at a single moment in time.
It reads state issued license plates that are publicly displayed
in plain sight where there is no expectation of privacy.
(19:57):
It doesn't record conversations as I mentioned, identify who's driving,
determined passengers, or track a person's continuous movement. It simply
performs more efficiently the same functioner function and officer can
perform manually. I'd like to give you just a couple
quick case examples, and I could give you I could
(20:18):
spend all day giving you examples of how ALPR has
been instrumental in cases a few quick ones. After two
violent assaults at a sale massage business in July twenty
twenty four, witnesses could provide only a generical general vehicle description.
Using ALPR technology, investigators match that description to a specific
(20:39):
van and obtain the plate. An ALPR camera detected the
vehicle near Lancaster and Sunnyview, allowing officers to locate and
arrest the suspect within an hour. DNA collected after the
arrest LinkedIn to another sexual assault, evolving a woman with
development developmental delays. He later pled no contest of multiple
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counts of rape, sodomy, attempted rape, and kidnapping. Without the ALPR,
he likely would have continued targeting vulnerable victims. Also in July,
a woman was found shot to death in her video
in her vehicle. Nearby video showed only a vague image
of a Nissan Rogue with an unreadable plate. A Salem
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ALPR camera captured the same vehicle shortly afterwards and provided
the crucial plate number. That single ALPR hit enabled investigators
to identify, locate, and ultimately convict the out of state
suspect someone with no clear connection to the victim. Without
ALPR data, the case would have been extremely difficult to solve.
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On February fourteenth of twenty three, ALPR in Klockamus County
Sheriff's Office patrol vehicle alerted deputies to a Lincoln Town
car that was reported stolen by the Rainier Police Department.
The victim of the stolen car was an elderly woman
who was carjacked. Quickly located the vehicle, and when they
attempted to stop it in Wilsonville, occupants fled before being
(22:05):
intercepted moments later. I'm going to shorten this, but you
can get the point. They were able to interdict somebody
that would have likely continued a violent crime spree. So
ALPR has been incredibly important to our agencies. And just
finally then are Oregon law enforcements committed to ensuring that
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the ALPR use and access remains responsible, ethical, and privacy protected.
Agencies have been actively involved in establishing strong procurement and
contract standards, creating data retention and deletion protocols, supporting audits
and access controls, and prohibiting unauthorized data sharing, restricting national
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aggregation of Oregon data and ensuring that only personnel with
a legitimate public safety purpose have access to the ALPER information.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Eugene police had used the Flock ALPR technology, and Police
Chief As Skinner terminated the contract with Flock after they
paused the program due to concerns about access to the
data being collected by federal immigration agencies, and one of
the cameras was turned back on. Before Eugene ended its
contract with Flock, Chris Skinner said the license played reading
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technology was beneficial.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Forwards of seventy percent of all of our criminal activity
has a vehicle description attached, and so this type of
technology is really important as a crime fighting tool. Probably
the most profound example of what happened here in Eugene
is our Asian American community members were subject of a
burglary ring, and very organized, well financed burglary ring. Over
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the last couple of years, we saw as many as
twenty four different burglaries that were targeting our Asian American
community members.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
We made some.
Speaker 8 (23:47):
Arrests back in twenty twenty four, only to find that
we had a new group in town that were targeting
our Asian Americans. But for ALPR with a very grainy
photo of a vehicle, we would have not been able
to identify that vehicle and subsequent license plate that would
with the help of the Eugene Police Department Patrol Division,
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Street Crimes and our detective unit vector in and find
the location of the vehicle staying at a local Airbnb
as their base of operations. We were able to surveil
that particular vehicle, watch them drive through our organ communities
up and down the I five corridor, such as Albany, Corvallis,
and up to Salem where they committed another burglary of
(24:30):
another Asian American family up there. We followed them back
and were able to ascertain that they had brought some
of the stolen material.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Back with them to Eugene.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
We wrote the appropriate search warrants and we were able
to arrest seven individuals and actually break open this organized
ring that we're targeting our Asian American community members.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Kaya Fireside lives in the Eugene area and explains how
federal agencies got access to the FLOCK data.
Speaker 9 (24:55):
The groundwork for flocks cooperation with federal agencies was laid
early in their development. They had MOUs with fusion centers
by October of twenty twenty. In June of this year,
in response to investigations of search audit logs, Flock said
they removed direct access to Flock data for federal agencies. However,
in August, investigators found additional evidence in search audit data
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that federal agencies had another kind of direct access to
Flock systems at individual cities. Flock set up accounts for
customs and Border protection agents who were able to request
direct access to the Flock systems in individual cities. Because
Flock's interface incentivizes data sharing, many cities accepted the requests
(25:41):
without knowing who they were sharing data with. Again, these
agencies were not aware of this data sharing. Flock described
this as a pilot program and subsequently discontinued it in
August in response to national reporting. Flock framed this as
a local issue, but they created a system that allowed
out federal agencies to breach local contracts without the knowledge
(26:04):
of the cities or departments that had paid for the system.
In October of this year, investigations by Ron Wyden's office
uncovered a greater level of federal access to Flock than
was previously known. This was enabled through a different mechanism
than the cases over the summer. The mechanism is the
National look Up Tool, which allows police agencies to search
(26:25):
FLOCK systems across the country. Agencies have to provide national
access in order to gain national access. Flock then gave
federal agents direct access to this same feature. We have
to emphasize here that we are looking at only one
of Flock's issues, and we're doing it through the tiniest
of keyholes in too short a time for detailed discussion.
(26:46):
The University of Washington that recently published a comprehensive report
on Flock's repeated data sharing with federal agencies. Their findings
matched those of journalists, Ron Wyden's office and independent organizations
like ours.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
They are also concerns about who can access the automated
license plate reading technology through public records requests. Legislation is
expected to be submitted to the Oregon legislature next year.
Stolen packages reach their peak this time of year because
the increase in online shopping. Kat and Brian to the
Northwest Insurance Council says, there are steps you can take
(27:19):
to protect your purchases.
Speaker 10 (27:20):
First, let's talk about ways to protect yourself financially right
one is if you're ordering things online. You know, we
don't watch for too many people. Black Friday and Cyber
Monday are turning into porch pirate Wednesday. So what do
you do upfront? You know, use a credit card if
you're buying online, a credit card or a debit card
that has purchased protection on it, so that if a
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package is lost or stolen, you can get reimbursed by
the lender, the bank, or the credit card company that
you use to purchase it. Also, you know, make sure
that you are tracking your packages from the time they
basically leave whatever warehouse they're coming out of seller is
providing it to the time it arrives at your door.
(28:03):
These days, most of these packages are tracked the whole
route along the way, and you know two days before
your packages arrived that it's been sent and you know
pretty much right up to the minute when it's going
to arrive. So you then can make arrangements to make
sure you're you or a neighbor or someone is around
to retrieve that package and not have it sitting out
on your porch for a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
What should we do if a package is stolen, Well, first.
Speaker 10 (28:27):
Confirm the package was delivered. Check your email and your
text messages to make sure that you know where that
package was and if it was actually delivered. You know,
a lot of delivery services even send you a photograph
of the package on your porch so you know if
it was there or not. If you don't see it
and you believe that it was supposed to have been delivered,
check with your neighbors, look around the back of the house,
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look under the porch in shrubs, make sure that the
person who delivered it wasn't hiding it to help you out.
And then if you have found out that you've confirmed
that it's stolen, first contact the retailer to report it
to them, contact the shipping company that ship the package
to your door, and also contact the whatever service you
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use to pay for it, whether it's a credit card
or a debit card or however, whatever method you use
to pay for that for that package, make sure you've
contacted all of those. And it's also, frankly a good
idea to contact the police because police need to track
the movement of porch pirates in neighborhoods and it helps
them to know even if they can't immediately recover the
(29:32):
stolen package. It helps them know where to patrol to
help catch package thieves in neighborhoods across Oregon.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
That's Kataon Bryant with a Northwest Insurance Council and tips
to avoid becoming a victim of a porch pirate. Thanks
for listening to Local Voices, I'm brand Board. You can
hear past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab.
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio
Welcome to local voices. I'm brad for this week. Mulam
County's Domicila Known Report will explore the reasons why homeless
people die about thirty years early and how those deaths
can be prevented. The Oregon legislature will examine automated license
plate reader technology next year and how to protect yourself
from a porch pirate. Vulam County released the Domicila Known
(00:27):
Report on Friday. It details the causes of death for
homeless people in the county. Mulam County Board of Commissioners
Chair Jessica Vega Peterson says these are preventable deaths.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The fact remains that far too many people are dying
while experiencing homelessness, reflecting the harsh conditions those living on
the street's face every single day. Fentanyl in particular, continues
to devastate our community. While unacceptably high, the eighteen percent
decrease in deaths from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty
(01:01):
four provides some hope that our investments to grow a
continuum of homelessness and behavioral health services are making a
difference and saving lives. And critically, it reflects the steadfast
work we've done as a community to support housing and
recovery services for thousands of people each year. I hope
(01:24):
this downward trend signals that we've moved out of the
toughest days of the fentanyl epidemic that we have worked
so hard to respond to. We know the risk that
our unhoused neighbors face, and this report should serve to
galvanize our commitment to interventions that address those risks, safe
and stable housing and shelter with services attached, and increased
(01:48):
access to behavioral and physical health care. We must continue
to apply lessons learned and do all we can to
ensure that the decrease that we're seeing this year is
continued year after year. I know that my board colleagues
share our commitment to building a strong system of care
for people struggling with substance use disorder, irrespective of their
(02:10):
housing status, but especially for those in the most vulnerable
situations in our community. Maltnahma County is committed to the
work to continue this downward trend.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Doctor Amalay Mossidas is the Maultnoma County Health Department's Epidemiology Manager.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
The numbers in this report represent the tragic loss of
life at an intersection of factors, most of which are prevncable.
Each data point that I'll talk about here represents a
person that our community has lost. For twenty twenty four,
this included three hundred and seventy two people who died
while experiencing homelessness in Moltnoma County. For the past three years.
(02:50):
In this report, we have been able to compile data
from both medical examiner investigations and from death certificates that
were overseen by healthcare providers. The most recent year that
we have finalized data from is twenty twenty four, which
is represented in the report that we released today. Fortunately,
the three hundred and seventy two deaths in twenty twenty
(03:12):
four represent a decline from the four hundred and fifty
six deaths in twenty twenty three, which was the highest
number of deaths since the report began in twenty eleven. However,
the deaths in twenty twenty four still are the highest
since twenty eleven except for twenty twenty three. The majority
of people who died while experiencing homelessness were reported to
(03:35):
be male between the ages of thirty five and forty four.
The majority were white but as a result of social
and structural determinants related to housing and health, there was
an overrepresentation of black and African American and American Indian,
and Alaska Native people among those who died. The largest
category of causes of death in twenty twenty four was
(03:57):
unintentional injury, which includes overdose. In twenty twenty three, we
had seen the peak in overdose deaths among people experiencing homelessness,
with two hundred and eighty two deaths. Although the number
decreased in twenty twenty four, there were still two hundred
and fourteen deaths due to overdose. Unintentional injury also includes
(04:19):
traffic fatalities. There were three fewer traffic fatalities identified in
twenty twenty four, for a total of nineteen deaths, compared
to twenty twenty three, where there were twenty two deaths.
The majority of these were among pedestrians and cyclists. The
leading causes of death among those deaths that were overseen
(04:39):
by medical providers were cancer and heart disease, which are
the same too leading causes of death for our county. Overall,
homelessness itself has continued to rise over time, which is
especially apparent as the Moltnomah County Homeless Services Department continues
to gather more complete, in depth data. The data that
(05:02):
we provide shows the risks associated with homelessness. We see
that overall, the risk of death due to any cause
is six times higher for people experiencing homelessness in Moltnoma
County than the general population.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Doctor Richard Bruno is Multo mccatty's health officer.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
I want to point out a few trends that doctor
Messidas mentioned that kind of mirror national trends in terms
of deaths by people experiencing homelessness. Those really include higher
risks of death among those who are male aged thirty
five to forty four and those who have disabilities. And
there's also similar drivers that are unintentional injury, mostly from
(05:44):
substance use in traffic fatalities, as well as chronic diseases
like cancer and heart disease. It's worth highlighting that in
twenty twenty four we saw an eighteen percent reduction in
those people experiencing homelessness deaths and from the year before,
and some of the those can be attributed to decreased
tests from substance use and traffic fatalities. And gun homicides,
(06:06):
and because those home overdose deaths decreased from two hundred
and eighty two to two hundred and fourteen last year,
we wanted to look at what was really driving those overdoses,
and the majority of those overdose deaths folks had used
both fentanyl and methamphetamines, so we figured those are to
(06:27):
the largest contributors to those overdoses and continue to inform
the need for dual diagnosis treatments. And although we've seen
some delays in the past for toxicology results, we're placing
new pilots in place to create faster work clothes in
our Medical Examiner's office to be able to identify those
(06:47):
more quickly and be able to assign those deaths and
bring closure to those family members those who've died. The
traffic fatalities, you know, those folks who had experienced homelessness
had a fifty four times greater risk of death from
traffic fatalities than the general population, and that was especially
true during times of low light, like before dawn and
(07:09):
after dusk. Those people are really we're dying simply trying
to exist and navigate within our county. So we're really
working on more coordinated urban planning interventions with our transportation
partners to ensure that we can continue to see decrease
traffic fatalities next year. Early evidence suggests that these interventions
(07:31):
are working. I'll highlight five main programs that have shown
promising results since twenty twenty four. The first was the
ninety d Fentanyl Emergency Declaration that happened between February and
April of last year that really set into place a
lot of interagency collaboration and coordination, sharing data, and presenting
those data publicly. So you can still go to our
(07:52):
website and see our fentanyl overdose dashboard, which has information
from five different agencies those trends and how they've been
improving over the last two years. Next is the overdose
Prevention and Response Plan that the Health Department released, which
really highlighted prevention, harm, reduction, treatment, and recovery options for
people with substance use disorder. We distributed fifty thousand doses
(08:15):
in a loxown last year and expanded our medication for
Opioid use disorder options in our clinics and our jails,
including long acting injectable Groupernorphan, which helped support people for
a month at a time. Next was the Homeless Response
Action Plan the h RAP, which really coordinated a strategic
attempt to improve our region's housing stability, and we've recognized
(08:41):
over ten thousand folks being able to access shelter and
over six thousand folks being able to leave homelessness for housing,
over one thousand shelter beds coming online, more site acquisition,
as well as improving the services available at those shelters
to bridge to longer term housing, and the goal is
really to also prevent hospital and jail discharges to the street.
(09:03):
Next was the Pathway Center for Deflection, and it's also
a place where people got needed services and got connected
to care. Over the last year and a half, over
four hundred people have engaged in services since it's opened,
and over half of those clients received. Over half of
those clients served reported being unsheltered at the time of service,
(09:24):
with top referrals going to substance use disorder treatment and housing.
And lastly, I want to highlight the mobile van services
that expanded under the funding from House Bill Fourenty fifty two,
which really attempt to provide low barrier access to medical, dental,
substance use and wound care services in the field and
really help avoid downstream er visits and hospitalizations. And many
(09:46):
of the van services that have opened include our County
Vans and our partners like Central City Concern, Cascadia New
Season Methadone Clinic, among many others. I just want to say,
as a family physician who's cared for many of the
folks who experienced houselessness. Each of the three hundred and
seventy two folks that we discuss in this report have
(10:09):
separate stories and have separate reasons that brought them to
early mortality. But we're really grateful that the families of
Tony and Sammy and Ben were willing to give their
insights into their lives and the situations that led to
their early deaths. Because the average life expectancy among those
who died in twenty twenty four who were experiencing homelessness
(10:31):
was forty six, which is nearly thirty years early than
the general population. As doctor Mesitis mentioned, someone who's experiencing
homelessness has a six times increased mortality rate, and so
we can call houselessness a major medical condition. I want
to encourage us not to be indifferent to these numbers
and difference is really not an option. We really must
(10:53):
explicitly work to prevent these deaths in our communities.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Paul Susci is the director of the Vendor program at
Street Roots. It's a newspaper produced and sold by people
who are homeless.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
I want to underscore here that this important work captures
specific data, and it's critical to have that information as
we collectively make decisions for the health and safety of
our larger communities. But this data masks the real stories
and identities of the people that they represent. And this
(11:24):
data exists in a really specific moment in time that
doesn't keep up with current circumstances. Since I joined Street
Routes as Vendor program director in July of this year,
I have witnessed six deaths in our community of vendors.
Some were folks living in supportive housing or hospice programs.
(11:45):
Some were living in the tents and sleeping bags that
are so conspicuously intolerable to so many members of our community.
Just yesterday, we hosted a memorial service at Street Routes
for two trans Indivis Jewels who passed from overdose. A
third member of that small family survived the same substances
(12:08):
and came to us to hold a memorial space for
them since no one else in the community would do so.
Another person was a longtime vendor and board member of
street Routes formerly homeless, and her passing has deeply rocked
her family, her community of neighbours and customers at PSU's
(12:30):
Saturday farmer Market, Farmer's Market, and her own faith community.
I mention these small, localized anecdotes because homelessness is not tense.
It's not garbage, it's not needles on the ground or
sleeping bags in your doorways. These are human beings. We
(12:51):
are human beings with dignity, love, histories, communal and familial
ties amongst all of us. You can't simply wearhouse people
against their will and with whole tents and sleeping bags,
and thereby assume that the problem is going away. We
(13:11):
are your family members, your students, your neighbors, your elders.
We share your faiths and your dreams, your disciplines and
your accomplishments. If this data indicates anything, it's that our
community's significant investments over the last several years are now
(13:31):
beginning to make a difference in the lethality of living
on the streets of Portland. Speaking as a former homeless
shelter manager myself, I can with confidence say that what
we truly need are more supportive housing programs, more peer
support and outreach programs, and yes, more tents and more
(13:52):
sleeping bags. These clearly do more to keep people alive
than simply trashing everyone's longings and shuffling people from one
undesired location to another and issuing one hundred dollars citations
that no one can afford to pay. Please everyone, please
review this data carefully. Please consider yourself in this data,
(14:18):
your loved ones, your family members. You if you lost
everything and had to survive outside, what are the programs
and resources that you would seek and how long would
you last until you became another statistic.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Drew Grabham as director of Outreach Services for Central City
Concern and says the Homeless Day of Remembrance will be
held tonight on the longest night of the year.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
We will be gathering together as a community and reading
off some of the names and talking about some of
the stories of some of our loved ones that came around.
Everyone is invited to come or to gather names to
be shared.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
There.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
We find it really important to come together as a
community to sort of remember our friends, remember and laugh
together about the funny things that they did, and grieve
the loss of these folks, and to continue to say
their names so that we remember how important they were
to our community. We're also coming because us, as some
of us providers, need to mourn and grieve and care
(15:20):
for ourselves. So this is a part of our own
self care that we do, and we're really honored to
come together. There's ten organizations that have put this together
on We will have singing and dance and food and
other gatherings together, so if you would like to come,
please join us.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
The Homeless Day of Remembrance will be held tonight at
five pm at Saint Andre Bassett Catholic Church at sixth
at West Burnside and Portland. You can read the twenty
twenty five Domicile Unknown Report on the moltnom County website.
The Oregon Legislator is expected to consider regulations on automated
license plate reader technology during next year's session. It's become
(15:57):
controversial because federal agents if banks the data for immigration investigations.
Kevin Campbell, Executive director of the Association of chase of
police explains how they work.
Speaker 7 (16:07):
ALPR is not new. It's been used for decades in Oregon,
in states around the United States and frankly around the
globe to help interdict criminal activity and to help generate
leads and close cases. In Oregon, alprd's deployed in two
main primary ways. The first is fixed cameras mounted on
(16:30):
infrastructure such as traffic signals, bridges, and light poles, and
then the second is mobile cameras installed on patrol vehicles.
The Oregon State Police, for interests, just deployed ALPR and
all of their patrol vehicles around the state. Let me
talk briefly about what ALPR captures. ALPR record a record
(16:56):
has created when a camera detects and reads a license plate,
generating a concise set of information. Each record includes a
cropped image of the plate, the date and time of
the detection, the GPS location or fixed camera site where
it occurred, and the translated plate number and issuing state.
(17:17):
It may also include a limited scene image showing just
enough of the vehicles such as bumper light, general color
to confirm the accuracy of the read. ALPR cameras capture
only what an officer could observe in public view, and
the technology is intentionally designed to limit information to plate
recognition ALPR systems are used. The data is used in
(17:41):
two different ways. The first is what i'll call real
time alerts, often called a hit list. The hit list
is a narrow, purpose built set of license plate tied
to specific public safety alerts. When a camera scans a plate,
it automatically checks it against federal NCIC databases and Oregon
(18:02):
LEADS database, and only notifies law enforcement if there is
a match a match to the list of crimes that
it's supposed to be looking for. So typical hit list
categories include stolen vehicles, felony or violent crime suspects, amber alerts,
missing or endangered persons, and vehicles linked to active investigations.
(18:28):
The system does not track vehicles. It simply compares to
each scan of the list and provides an alert of
appropriate for investigations. Historical ALPR detections help confirm or refute leads,
identify patterns, place vehicles at key locations, and pinpoint potential
addresses or travel habits. This information strengthens cases and speeds investigations,
(18:53):
and data not only tied to an active case is
subject to strict retention limits, typically thirty days. Importantly, ALPR
data is only queried when directly relevant to an active
investigation or to locating a suspect or a vulnerable person.
It's also important to know what ALPR does not do.
(19:13):
Unlike surveillance surveillance tools to track people continuously, ALPR does
not monitor continuous movements. It's more like following breadcrumbs. It
doesn't reveal private associations or record private conversations. Technologies such
as GPS tracking or sell site data they do generate
(19:34):
detailed records of a person's movements and require warrants for
that reason. In contrast, ALPR produces isolated data points a
vehicle on a public road at a single moment in time.
It reads state issued license plates that are publicly displayed
in plain sight where there is no expectation of privacy.
(19:57):
It doesn't record conversations as I mentioned, identify who's driving,
determined passengers, or track a person's continuous movement. It simply
performs more efficiently the same functioner function and officer can
perform manually. I'd like to give you just a couple
quick case examples, and I could give you I could
(20:18):
spend all day giving you examples of how ALPR has
been instrumental in cases a few quick ones. After two
violent assaults at a sale massage business in July twenty
twenty four, witnesses could provide only a generical general vehicle description.
Using ALPR technology, investigators match that description to a specific
(20:39):
van and obtain the plate. An ALPR camera detected the
vehicle near Lancaster and Sunnyview, allowing officers to locate and
arrest the suspect within an hour. DNA collected after the
arrest LinkedIn to another sexual assault, evolving a woman with
development developmental delays. He later pled no contest of multiple
(21:02):
counts of rape, sodomy, attempted rape, and kidnapping. Without the ALPR,
he likely would have continued targeting vulnerable victims. Also in July,
a woman was found shot to death in her video
in her vehicle. Nearby video showed only a vague image
of a Nissan Rogue with an unreadable plate. A Salem
(21:22):
ALPR camera captured the same vehicle shortly afterwards and provided
the crucial plate number. That single ALPR hit enabled investigators
to identify, locate, and ultimately convict the out of state
suspect someone with no clear connection to the victim. Without
ALPR data, the case would have been extremely difficult to solve.
(21:45):
On February fourteenth of twenty three, ALPR in Klockamus County
Sheriff's Office patrol vehicle alerted deputies to a Lincoln Town
car that was reported stolen by the Rainier Police Department.
The victim of the stolen car was an elderly woman
who was carjacked. Quickly located the vehicle, and when they
attempted to stop it in Wilsonville, occupants fled before being
(22:05):
intercepted moments later. I'm going to shorten this, but you
can get the point. They were able to interdict somebody
that would have likely continued a violent crime spree. So
ALPR has been incredibly important to our agencies. And just
finally then are Oregon law enforcements committed to ensuring that
(22:26):
the ALPR use and access remains responsible, ethical, and privacy protected.
Agencies have been actively involved in establishing strong procurement and
contract standards, creating data retention and deletion protocols, supporting audits
and access controls, and prohibiting unauthorized data sharing, restricting national
(22:47):
aggregation of Oregon data and ensuring that only personnel with
a legitimate public safety purpose have access to the ALPER information.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Eugene police had used the Flock ALPR technology, and Police
Chief As Skinner terminated the contract with Flock after they
paused the program due to concerns about access to the
data being collected by federal immigration agencies, and one of
the cameras was turned back on. Before Eugene ended its
contract with Flock, Chris Skinner said the license played reading
(23:16):
technology was beneficial.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Forwards of seventy percent of all of our criminal activity
has a vehicle description attached, and so this type of
technology is really important as a crime fighting tool. Probably
the most profound example of what happened here in Eugene
is our Asian American community members were subject of a
burglary ring, and very organized, well financed burglary ring. Over
(23:40):
the last couple of years, we saw as many as
twenty four different burglaries that were targeting our Asian American
community members.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
We made some.
Speaker 8 (23:47):
Arrests back in twenty twenty four, only to find that
we had a new group in town that were targeting
our Asian Americans. But for ALPR with a very grainy
photo of a vehicle, we would have not been able
to identify that vehicle and subsequent license plate that would
with the help of the Eugene Police Department Patrol Division,
(24:09):
Street Crimes and our detective unit vector in and find
the location of the vehicle staying at a local Airbnb
as their base of operations. We were able to surveil
that particular vehicle, watch them drive through our organ communities
up and down the I five corridor, such as Albany, Corvallis,
and up to Salem where they committed another burglary of
(24:30):
another Asian American family up there. We followed them back
and were able to ascertain that they had brought some
of the stolen material.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Back with them to Eugene.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
We wrote the appropriate search warrants and we were able
to arrest seven individuals and actually break open this organized
ring that we're targeting our Asian American community members.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Kaya Fireside lives in the Eugene area and explains how
federal agencies got access to the FLOCK data.
Speaker 9 (24:55):
The groundwork for flocks cooperation with federal agencies was laid
early in their development. They had MOUs with fusion centers
by October of twenty twenty. In June of this year,
in response to investigations of search audit logs, Flock said
they removed direct access to Flock data for federal agencies. However,
in August, investigators found additional evidence in search audit data
(25:19):
that federal agencies had another kind of direct access to
Flock systems at individual cities. Flock set up accounts for
customs and Border protection agents who were able to request
direct access to the Flock systems in individual cities. Because
Flock's interface incentivizes data sharing, many cities accepted the requests
(25:41):
without knowing who they were sharing data with. Again, these
agencies were not aware of this data sharing. Flock described
this as a pilot program and subsequently discontinued it in
August in response to national reporting. Flock framed this as
a local issue, but they created a system that allowed
out federal agencies to breach local contracts without the knowledge
(26:04):
of the cities or departments that had paid for the system.
In October of this year, investigations by Ron Wyden's office
uncovered a greater level of federal access to Flock than
was previously known. This was enabled through a different mechanism
than the cases over the summer. The mechanism is the
National look Up Tool, which allows police agencies to search
(26:25):
FLOCK systems across the country. Agencies have to provide national
access in order to gain national access. Flock then gave
federal agents direct access to this same feature. We have
to emphasize here that we are looking at only one
of Flock's issues, and we're doing it through the tiniest
of keyholes in too short a time for detailed discussion.
(26:46):
The University of Washington that recently published a comprehensive report
on Flock's repeated data sharing with federal agencies. Their findings
matched those of journalists, Ron Wyden's office and independent organizations
like ours.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
They are also concerns about who can access the automated
license plate reading technology through public records requests. Legislation is
expected to be submitted to the Oregon legislature next year.
Stolen packages reach their peak this time of year because
the increase in online shopping. Kat and Brian to the
Northwest Insurance Council says, there are steps you can take
(27:19):
to protect your purchases.
Speaker 10 (27:20):
First, let's talk about ways to protect yourself financially right
one is if you're ordering things online. You know, we
don't watch for too many people. Black Friday and Cyber
Monday are turning into porch pirate Wednesday. So what do
you do upfront? You know, use a credit card if
you're buying online, a credit card or a debit card
that has purchased protection on it, so that if a
(27:42):
package is lost or stolen, you can get reimbursed by
the lender, the bank, or the credit card company that
you use to purchase it. Also, you know, make sure
that you are tracking your packages from the time they
basically leave whatever warehouse they're coming out of seller is
providing it to the time it arrives at your door.
(28:03):
These days, most of these packages are tracked the whole
route along the way, and you know two days before
your packages arrived that it's been sent and you know
pretty much right up to the minute when it's going
to arrive. So you then can make arrangements to make
sure you're you or a neighbor or someone is around
to retrieve that package and not have it sitting out
on your porch for a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
What should we do if a package is stolen, Well, first.
Speaker 10 (28:27):
Confirm the package was delivered. Check your email and your
text messages to make sure that you know where that
package was and if it was actually delivered. You know,
a lot of delivery services even send you a photograph
of the package on your porch so you know if
it was there or not. If you don't see it
and you believe that it was supposed to have been delivered,
check with your neighbors, look around the back of the house,
(28:48):
look under the porch in shrubs, make sure that the
person who delivered it wasn't hiding it to help you out.
And then if you have found out that you've confirmed
that it's stolen, first contact the retailer to report it
to them, contact the shipping company that ship the package
to your door, and also contact the whatever service you
(29:09):
use to pay for it, whether it's a credit card
or a debit card or however, whatever method you use
to pay for that for that package, make sure you've
contacted all of those. And it's also, frankly a good
idea to contact the police because police need to track
the movement of porch pirates in neighborhoods and it helps
them to know even if they can't immediately recover the
(29:32):
stolen package. It helps them know where to patrol to
help catch package thieves in neighborhoods across Oregon.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
That's Kataon Bryant with a Northwest Insurance Council and tips
to avoid becoming a victim of a porch pirate. Thanks
for listening to Local Voices, I'm brand Board. You can
hear past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab.
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio
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