Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler proposed a budgetary plan to reduce the Portland Police Bureau's budget in March of 2021 by $2.9 million, a larger decrease than any other department in the government. That year saw a record number of homicides. PPB later received a budget bump of $5.2 million in November.

Changes in the Portland Police Bureau's funding began in earnest in 2020 when the city of Portland approved a plan to cut the police budget by $15 million. This eliminated funding for police units investigating gun crimes and those working in schools and on public transit. 

How do Portlanders feel about these changes? According to a 2022 poll of likely voters, 82% of residents in the Portland area would like to see more police, and 64% of residents do not think Oregon's criminal justice system is as rigid as it should be.

Critics of further defunding the police say the effects of doing so would be catastrophic. They cite the marked increase in shootings and homicide from 2019 to 2021 and say that crime will only get worse unless Portland invests in building up the police force.

Those who support reducing the budget for Portland Police Bureau believe that police are unfairly targeting minorities rather than consistently applying the law. Jasmine Casanova-Dean, a BLM organizer at local nonprofit Unite Oregon, has said, "the true frustration is that we'll spend so much money on these police officers [for] them to terrorize us." 

The question up for debate is, should the Portland Police Bureau be further defunded, as Mayor Wheeler has suggested?