October 7, 2020
PORTLAND, Ore. – Today, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt released a new statistical dashboard that analyzes protest-related cases referred to his office by law enforcement for prosecutorial review and potential issuing.
“This is a major step forward for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. Transparency in the work we do is a keystone to my administration. Moving this data online for the community to easily use will have a significant impact on understanding cases that arise from mass demonstrations. I promised during my campaign that I take a smarter approach to justice. That work continues with the launch of this dashboard. I am committed to launching future dashboards and other public facing programs that will support data-driven and transparent decision making,” said District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s “Mass Demonstration/Protest Case Dashboard” is accessible on the district attorney’s public website under the “Case Information” section. The information will be updated weekly after data is received from law enforcement and then entered into the district attorney’s case management system.
The information contained within this dashboard includes:
- The number of cases referred to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office by law enforcement;
- A summary of cases after being received:
- Whether cases were filed and the subsequent status;
- Whether cases were rejected and for what reason;
- The types of general crimes referred, issued or rejected;
- Whether cases were referred/issued as a felony or misdemeanor;
- Demographic information on all referred, issued or rejected cases.
In summary, since May 29, 2020[1]:
- 974 demonstration-related cases have been referred to MCDA;
- 182 of those cases are pending review;
- 95 felony cases have been issued;
- 33 misdemeanor cases have been issued;
- 543 cases have been rejected in the interest of justice;
- 44 cases have been rejected due to insufficient evidence
- 12 cases have been rejected due to a legal impediment
- 67 cases have been rejected pending investigative follow up from law enforcement. These cases can be resubmitted to the district attorney’s office for prosecutorial review once law enforcement completes its follow up.
Demographic information, such as race, gender, and age, comes from referring law enforcement police reports. Juvenile data are not included.
The dashboard does not conduct any disparity analysis. Demographics may not be representative of county population due to over-or under-representation of demographic groups at mass demonstration events.
Referred case and arrest data are not interchangeable terms. Therefore, this data should not be used to represent the number of arrests made by local or state law enforcement during mass demonstrations. Arrest data must be obtained by contacting the individual law enforcement agency.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office is providing information on the methodology and definitions on its dashboard website, and strongly encourages individuals using the dashboard to carefully read that section.
District Attorney Schmidt recognizes the work of the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Research and Evaluation Team, the Information Services Unit and the Strategic Prosecution and Services Unit for their dedicated efforts working on this dashboard.
#MCDA#
[1] Data range: May 29 – October 5, 2020
Media Contact:
Brent Weisberg, Communications Director
Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office
Email: Brent.Weisberg@nullmcda.us