Why does Portland need the one thousand police officers that it already has? Whoever is managing the Police retirement fund must need a continual exponential influx of funds in order to keep the Ponzi scheme afloat. Realistically, Portland only needs about two hundred police officers. The City would have all the money it needs for infrastructure, if it cuts eighty percent of the Police Department. Even enough to chip in to Multnomah County for fixing the decrepit deteriorated deadly hazardous bridges.

Really? 200 officers, 3 shifts, 7 days a week? 200? Really? Talk about long response times.

Easy to throw out a number like two hundred. Why not fifty or three hundred? Please provide some type of logical rationale for your hypothesis.

It's an arbitrary number. When police are too busy to harass innocent citizens who are minding their own business, that's when there won't be too large a force. Police presence does deter crime, but forty-eight officers on duty per shift is more than adequate. Response time is never in time, anyway. By nature, there is never a cop around when you need one. You could cut the force even more, by parking prowl cars in conspicuously semi-hidden locations, to emulate speed traps. What with the traffic cams at every intersection, and automatic radar detection vans, not to mention invasive drones, who needs bullies? What's needed is more detectives, to investigate incidences, such as stolen cars and suspicious suicides.