Portland's new police chief says that homelessness, addiction and recruitment and retention of officers are some of the biggest issues facing the city.
Mark Dubois was sworn in Friday morning, making him Portland's first permanent chief since Frank Clark left the job two years ago.
Dubois has spent more than a decade leading departments in Maynard and Braintree, Massachusetts.
Dubois described recruitment and retention of new officers as a major challenge for the department, making it difficult to staff certain units.
Dubois said that he also views the police as just one part of a multi-faceted response team that's needed to assist the city's growing number of unhoused residents
"There's a lot of different aspects to the homeless population that need to be addressed," Dubois said. "And the police are just one dimension of that. There are a lot of other city services that need to be involved, to try to assist, to minimize that population as much as possible."
In recent years, some Portland residents have called for more police accountability, and voters approved a new citizen police review board last year. Dubois said that officers should be engaged in local neighborhoods to earn trust.
"I like to say that they're ambassadors for the police department," Dubois said. "The more those officers are engaged, the more we figure out what the issues are. And the more trusting the community is, of the police department. Because they know people."
