Obviously, St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner and with that uh come celebrations, a lot of them between now and next Tuesday. And with that uh we typically see an increase in impaired driving. Uh we'll be talking uh about how the Portland Police Bureau and the Oregon State Police will be joining other law enforcement partners in some high visibility uh DUI uh missions uh over the coming days. We're also joined by PBOT to talk about discounted opportunities when it comes to ride share and taxis and the talk about some of their critical work as well. So, again, thank you for coming. Uh with that, I'll turn it over to Sergeant Betsy Hornstein of the PPB Traffic Division. Betsy. >> Uh good afternoon, everyone. My name is Sergeant Betsy Hornstein, uh b e t s y Hornstein's, h o r n s t e i n. And uh as my side, I work for the traffic division uh and I'm also one of our major crash team supervisors. >> [snorts] >> Uh so, as we approach this St. Patrick's Day holiday, uh Portland Police Bureau is going to be joining law enforcement agencies across the region to keep our community safe. From March 13th through March 17th, you can expect to see high visibility DUI uh enforcement missions throughout the area. Uh our officers will be out proactively looking for impaired drivers and enforcing traffic laws. The goal is simple, um prevent impaired driving and keep people safe. Uh we know this work matters because we see the results of this. Uh during last year, uh we had similar St. Patrick's Day weekend and uh officers conducted around 1,200 traffic stops. Uh this resulted about 730 citations being issued, 925 warnings, and there were also 85 arrests during that period. Um, 58 of those arrests were impaired driving. So, while enforcement is very important, uh, prevention's much better. So, uh, St. Patrick's Day is a time when many people gather with family, friends, and they're out to celebrate, and we just want everyone to enjoy the holiday safely. Uh, if you plan to drink, please please plan ahead. Uh, have a designated driver, use a ride share, use public transportation, or even walk. Uh, making that decision before you start celebrating can prevent a tragedy. If you see someone driving who appears to be impaired, please call 911 and report it. That call could help prevent a crash and potentially save lives. This effort is also part of our continued commitment to Vision Zero and the city's goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries. Impaired driving continues to be a major factor in fatal crashes, and enforcement like this is the one way we can work to reduce that risk. Uh, our message is simple. Celebrate responsibly, plan ahead, and never drive impaired. So, together we can make sure everyone gets home safely this, uh, St. Patrick's Day weekend. Uh, thank you very much, and I will be turning this over to Lieutenant Denny from Oregon State Police. >> All right. Thank you, Sergeant Hornstein. Uh, my name is Logan Denny. Logan is spelled l o g a n. Last of Denny is d e n n e y. I'm a lieutenant with the Oregon State Police and serve out of our Patrol Services Division. The Oregon State Police and several agencies in the area will be facilitating uh safe traveling missions throughout uh the state of Oregon, especially on our highways and interstates. Uh as it relates to Central Oregon, Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon, we will have uh troopers out and supporting those areas. As it relates to the Northwest and here specifically in the Portland Metropolitan area, OSP will be partnering with members of the metro area uh traffic enforcement collaboration or MATIC, which is uh a collaboration of deputies, officers, and troopers throughout the three-county area. Uh this collaboration is focused on enhancing traffic safety here in the metropolitan area. This primary goal of the MATIC patrols will be to uh support interagency traffic uh collaboration. And again, the focus is on prevention and enforcement of fatal five behaviors which can relate from to speed, occupant safety, lane departure, impaired driving, and distracted driving. These five behaviors are statistically known to cause fatal crashes, and all agencies will have one focus, preventing fatal and serious injury crashes this weekend in all districts throughout this metropolitan area. Motorists can help us and the mission uh on this mission in terms of remembering these behaviors, these fatal five behaviors as they drive throughout the area. Along with this, uh they can consider planning ahead when they come in to the metro area and when they're leaving, uh planning accordingly especially with the type of weather we're having right now. Uh along with that, utilizing safe and sober rides as Sergeant Hornstein has alluded to, and also reporting any dangerous driving behaviors to law enforcement. OSP and partners will have high visibility presence on all highways and interstates. We encourage the public to contact law enforcement uh as it relates to emergencies on the roadway, hazards, or even driving complaints. An easy way to do this is 911 if you do not know the law enforcement agency for that location. For the Oregon State Police, you can dial star OSP or star 677 for any non-emergencies on any interstates or highways or uh the city of Portland, 311 is the best way to do that. Um the last thing I want to remind folks of is impaired driving. As uh we know this holiday weekend and this upcoming weekend has a nexus to impaired driving uh per NHTSA, which is National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it's well known that lots of folks come to the metro and consume beverages and participate. We ask that people do that safely. Um impaired driving again can aggravate the fatal five behaviors that we've already talked about. People have higher speeds, sometimes don't use occupant safety or restraint systems. The lane departures that they have can be serious, fatal, and cause severe damage. Um with this uh what we're asking and reminding the public about is what impaired driving is. Um impairment involves uh any substance that enters the body or in combinations that can uh render the body or impair the body uh and an individual's ability to drive a vehicle safely. Um so this can include substances like alcohol, cannabis, controlled substances, psilocybin, medications, or any other substance that can impair a person. Simply put, if you feel different, you're going to drive different. We ask you to use safe and sober ride options. Our partners with PBOT are going to talk about those here very soon. And again, your Oregon State Police will be out on the highways working with our partners. We are grateful for the partnership and the collaboration of all agencies including the Portland Police Bureau. Uh we ask that you have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. And with that, I'll hand it off to Dylan Rivera with uh PBOT. >> Thanks, Lieutenant. Um thank you to the Portland Police Bureau for hosting us this afternoon. Um thank you to uh Oregon State Police and OLCC for joining us today. I'm Dylan Rivera. I'm the public information officer for the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation. I'm here to talk about the city's commitment to Vision Zero, uh, to ending traffic deaths, and what everyone can do to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries uh, every day on our streets. Um, this weekend through Tuesday, we know many people will be celebrating the St. Patrick's Day holiday. Please don't drink and drive. Before you go out, make a plan for a safe ride home. PBOT is here to help. Our Safe Ride Home program is providing discounts on taxi, Uber, and Lyft rides uh, throughout the weekend through Tuesday evening uh, through 2:30 a.m. um, Wednesday morning. Uh, coupons are valid for rides starting in the City of Portland 6:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. each night. You can download a digital coupon today and that'll stay uh, in your account with Uber or Lyft uh, through the end of this period through uh, Tuesday night and it'll be active during those hours at 6:00 p.m. to 2:30. So, you can get your coupon today and then uh, make your plan for a safe ride this weekend. Uh, for taxi coupons, visit uh, Kells' Portland Irish Festival or the Paddy's St. Patrick's Day Festival. Ask an employee for a paper taxi coupon that's good for $20 off one ride. Simply give that paper coupon to your taxi driver. The Safe Ride Home program is funded by the taxi permit fees and the fees that we are able to charge for each Uber and Lyft ride in Portland. Uh, this also pays for driver education, background checks for drivers, our inspections of vehicles to make sure they're safe, and make make the public is safe year-round, uh, when they're using Uber and Lyft. Um, we'll have uh more than 100 businesses will have these flyers uh through Tuesday night, reminding everyone about the program, about uh downloading uh the coupon, or going to to uh get a paper coupon for a taxi ride. Um, the Safe Ride Home program is just one way we're working to reduce impaired driving. Uh impaired driving is a top contributing factor to traffic deaths in the city of Portland. Over the most recent 5-year period, we have 70% of deadly crashes in Portland involved alcohol and or drug impairment. Over 5 years, they caused 470 deaths or serious life-altering injuries on our streets and highways in Portland. And so, this is a major contributor to traffic deaths and serious injuries that we're trying to address. Um, and to to achieve Vision Zero, to reduce and eventually eliminate traffic deaths and and serious injuries, we know we need to create a safe system. We need safe streets. Last year, PBOT broke ground on more than five safety improvement projects on high crash corridors, and we will continue to do as much as we can uh to design our streets for safety rather than speed. Uh PBOT also has ongoing safety education programs for Uber, Lyft, and taxi drivers, as well as schoolchildren across the city that incorporate Vision Zero. So, uh we reduced speed limits on 22 miles of streets last year. So, we're designing our our streets to be safer. We need our people to be safer as well through public education, the enforcement efforts as well that you've heard today. We're really uh pleased and proud of the uh efforts of Portland police and Oregon State Police to focus our enforcement on high crash corridors and dangerous behaviors that are deadly that we know from experience over years here and nationwide that are dangerous behaviors that are contributing to traffic deaths and serious injuries and we appreciate that enforcement targeting those behaviors when and where they're needed most and the work of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission to educate servers, businesses, and the public on how to be safe as well is crucial so we can have not just safe streets, but safe people. That helps build the safe system that we need. This multi-disciplinary approach. This is bigger than transportation. We've all learned that in recent years through the pandemic. And this is all part of the city of Portland's commitment to Vision Zero. The City Council has made it clear that they are committed to Vision Zero to eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries from our streets. Mayor Wilson has pledged his support, his involvement, and that and that bureaus across city government are going to be involved in making progress on this and so we look forward to the continued partnership with Portland Police, Oregon State Police, OLCC, and other partners. And we really appreciate the attention on this this weekend. It makes a huge difference. Thank you very much. Up next is OLCC. >> Good afternoon. My name is Andy Jurik, J U R I K. I'm the director of alcohol compliance for Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. I want to thank the Portland Police Bureau for organizing this event and for us to be part of the partnership for, uh, the St. Patrick's weekend and uh St. Patrick's Day. At the OLCC, our mission is to oversee access to alcohol and cannabis products in Oregon. The staff and our office, 12 offices across the state, do this by through education, regulation, and the distilled spirits distribution. We work with over 16,000 businesses that serve alcohol. Not only do we ensure that they are in compliance with the rules, but we also educate and train 166,000 people they employ. We train and educate them so they know what the rules are and make, uh, service better. We also make sure, that more than 9,500 special events yearly are conducted and service of alcohol is done in a responsible manner. It's a big job, but we're happy to do it and we take great pride in that work. Also in that work, we aim to protect to protect public health and safety while supporting responsible businesses and providing funding for local and state agencies. So, what does this mean for the approach to the St. Patrick's holiday? It's one word, prevention. During a holiday like St. Patrick's Day, we focus our efforts on preventing harmful behaviors like serving minors and over serving adults. In the run-up to this holiday, we've been working with the bars, restaurants, and special event holders and their employees to make sure they understand the rules and the regulations around serving of alcohol. And we also make sure that they have control plans in place for access for minors. Our inspectors will also be looking to ensure patrons consume alcohol they're over 21 and they also will be watching for over serving. Our If our inspectors do notice violations, we'll work with the licensees, the restaurants and bars, and special event holders to get them into compliance. We like that We like to do that through education and voluntary compliance. In a situation, if we see some restaurants or bars or special events getting a little out of hand, we'll step in and we'll probably ask our law enforcement partners to join us. We'll ask the restaurant or the bar or the festival to turn the lights up, start checking over service, and bring the music down and get things to calm calm down. So, this St. Patrick's Day, we want our fellow Oregonians to have fun, celebrate things that are all Irish, and be safe doing so. That's why we're working to support Oregonians to make good decisions and avoid bad behaviors that could harm themselves and others. Let's remember that the best mistake is the one you don't make. Thank you again to Portland Police Bureau, the Oregon State Police, the Portland Bureau of Transportation for this partnership. We are happy to be part of this effort. Taking one with me, man. >> All right, thank you to our uh speakers. Uh I got some time for a few questions, if you have them. >> I have a couple. Yeah, um I'll start with Sergeant Hornstein. Can you explain what high visibility means? >> Uh sure. Um high visibility, it it's almost exactly what it sounds like. So, the goal is to be out there, be visible, and to make the stops for the violations and dangerous driving behavior as police officers see it. >> So, it's not necessarily like a gotcha moment. It's so people know that there's police out, and so they can correct their behavior before even an officer pulls them over potentially. >> Yes. I mean, if we can prevent the dangerous driving before it even happens, that's an even greater success. >> So, will we be all hands on deck then for the that time period? >> Uh so, we do have our traffic division members who will be out working. Uh they'll be out doing high-visibility patrols looking for dangerous driving behavior. Uh you know, the precincts will have their officers staffed as they usually do. And being a weekend, uh the entertainment district, they have officers that are assigned to those to the bar area. Uh so, they will be out as well. >> And Betsy, if you can also elaborate on this, but like again, just to hammer home the point, it's agencies like across the metro area, other other police agencies will be doing the same as well. >> Yes, that's correct. Yes, so I mean, with Oregon State Police coming into the metro area, that really boosts the amount of visible law enforcement that will be out in not just Portland, but the metro area, um as well. >> Uh with these high-visibility uh uh missions, um do you over the years of doing them, have you seen a decrease in the number of people that are uh being uh pulled over for DUII, or is it maintained pretty similar? >> Uh you know, I don't have the exact numbers, but when we do have more more officers available out and being able to stop and stop these dangerous drivers that are out on the road, uh we do tend to see more stops, more citations, more arrests because we've been able to intercept them before the likely crash that could happen. So. >> You know, to put you on the spot for a second, Betsy, you're a part of our major crash team. You respond to some very uh horrific crashes, and obviously, we're here to talk about planning ahead, driving responsibly, safe rides home. Can you kind of paint a picture for the people in the room, and the people who might see this at home, about what it's like to respond to you know, a major incident like that, and and your message to people who might be engaging in behavior that they can you know, avoid situations like that? >> Yeah, uh it's a pretty big question, but um what Yeah, so with these these fatal crashes, there's a lot that does go into them. We have the initial act that happens. So, unfortunately, with an impaired driving crash where that results in a fatality, the fatality could be the driver, or it could be another victim of sorts. So, patrol resources will respond initially to that crash. They'll assess what's going on, what's the severity of what they're seeing. Uh from there, there's a consultation with the major crash team supervisor. Uh in some cases, that's me, uh and then I have several other partners who are major crash team supervisors. Um in a fatal crash, we do respond. Uh and so, sometimes our major crash team members are actually out working already, or they'll get paged from home. Um we respond, investigate the crash. Uh we have a traffic investigations unit uh officer who is a reconstructionist. Um they take scans. If the weather's appropriate, this is where we actually do use a a drone to help um to reconstruct the scene. Uh we also consult with the district attorney's office if this is a prosecutable crash. And so, that alone right there with our public safety, it impacts numerous people and takes hours and hours of work. That's the work side of it. But then we have the piece where we have the human element that that really affects not only the victims um and the families of those involved, but but it does affect the police officers and sergeants and any law enforcement member uh you know, often times we'll have to go contact the families and have to notify them that you know, your loved one's not coming home anymore. And so that that takes its toll. Um it takes its toll on the officers, the family, and sometimes these victims who are killed in the crashes are well-loved members of the community. So this is this is why I really want to like send it home, please don't drink and drive. We don't want any more of these to happen. So. >> It sounds like some of the the positions are pretty specialized in terms of trying to conduct the investigation for a crash like this. Because they're so specialized, does that put a strain on the system overall if there's multiple crashes that are happening? >> Absolutely. Um one of these crashes takes several hours. And that's some of the non-complicated investigations. Uh some of these crashes will will be working on them just in that small response time frame, 8 hours just being on scene. And then there's all of the work that goes beyond and it is very resource intensive. >> Thank you. I have a question. Oh, go ahead. >> I yeah, I had a question for Andy. >> Yes. >> You mentioned that you're going to have inspectors in various establishments. Is this just the major major places in town or is this going to be statewide and you're just going to scatter people out to keep an eye on what's going on at party hot spots. >> Yes. do you determine that? >> We will look at, you know, [clears throat] for the Portland metro area, obviously we have the the Shamrock Run, we have kills. Uh we'll be, you know, focusing our attention to the theme type bars that are having, you know, the the St. Patrick's Irish theme thing. Uh and we'll have inspectors there. Statewide, same. We uh we approach it the same way. We go to the places that are going to be busy and that's where we concentrate our efforts. Uh from now from starting Friday through the holiday midweek, uh we'll have anywhere from 20 to 30 out statewide. >> And you mentioned that um you start this uh several months in advance before the actual holiday. Is it around the uh the Christmas >> We actually do it year-round. We we do this type of training uh you know, looking for over-service, uh minors, checking ID. We do a lot of ID training. We do a lot of this. We do this year-round. This is kind of our bread and butter. This is our business. Uh but when we start approaching, you know, major drinking holidays, we start, you know, double-downing saying, "Okay, make sure you guys are right. You're bringing in extra staff. Do we need to help you train them? Anything that we can do to help?" Uh that partnership with them. >> My last question to that end, on the law enforcement side, obviously you're talking about the high visibility. It's not necessarily a gotcha moment. Um do you all operate the same way? Like are you there with a badge displayed? Do they know? Are you trying to figure out if there's violations uh to help them? >> We tend to operate better in the shadows in a sense that we want to be watching what's going on. Uh if if if it's a big event, sometimes we are out there in uniform. Uh you know, if we need to to to partner up with Sometimes we go down with the district, walk downtown, sometimes we're in uniform. But in this case, we'll probably be out and about just kind of blending in. >> Our last question is real quick. Would be for Lieutenant Danny, maybe you know, if we find ourselves in the middle of an atmospheric river, can you talk about the component of weather and and impaired driving? >> Yeah, again, it's going to aggravate impaired driving. We already know that an impaired driver is already going to either be distracted or have the inability to control a vehicle. When we talk about impairment, right? It's a mental or physical faculty that's now being impaired. Add now your window. If many of you drove in today, there was a lot of downpour. Add that into the effect. You got standing water. We're going to have people hydroplaning out on the roads. If you're going to be going up to Government Camp from Mount Hood, there is snow forecasted. So at the end of the day, we're we're balancing different weather conditions and now you're factoring in the impairment piece. And so again, it just it'll aggravate the scenario and lead to potentially worse crash or scenario in that situation. >> I'm Andy, could you So your question about the gotcha moment, could you tell them about our the approach is really education first. We want to bring them into voluntary compliance. We don't want to scare them. >> So yeah, to to expand on the gotcha, we don't do gotcha. I mean, we're out there our practice is education first. I mean, we want we want the licensees or the bar bars or restaurants to be successful. So we'll, you know, if we see a violation, we we work with them on the spot if we can, you know, to typically when it's busy like this, we might have to wait, let things die down and then we we get them to address the problem right there and then we'll work on training after the fact. But it's it's more voluntary compliance is what we look for. >> Thank you for clarifying. I have one other question for Dylan and then I promise I'm done. I don't get paid by the question. The to the point of the discounted fares for Lyft and Uber and for taxi, how how is that paid for? Is that from Vision Zero that's subsidizing that or is that just a discount from the companies themselves? >> Oh, um so when uh Uber and Lyft started service in Portland roughly 10 years ago, the city council made the affirmative choice that we as a city want to provide safety rules and and and make sure those vehicles and drivers are safe. And so part of that is uh we charge a fee per ride for Uber and Lyft. And we uh have a fee for taxi company permits. And that helps uh fund uh that ongoing uh safety uh effort. Uh the the driver background checks, uh vehicle inspections, um ongoing uh communication with the companies. If we find a a a driver has a has a a citation that's that's a concerning that's traffic related, we'll work with the companies to take appropriate action. And so as part of that, we also uh uh have uh over the years learned that we can provide this incentive uh partnering with the companies uh on uh these uh especially heavily uh celebratory weekends to uh provide an incentive for folks to get a safe ride home. And so we've it's evolved over the years uh different ways, different holidays. Um but we found, you know, last year we were able to provide over 3,000 ride discounts uh just in 2025 alone uh on various holiday weekends. Uh we've seen the enforcement missions coupled with these incentives really uh we think having a powerful impact. Last year, 2025, there were no DUI I related fatal crashes on these key holiday weekends in the city of Portland. And now we've always say, you know, one year does not make a trend, but we think there's something happening there. And because over the years we've all experienced some of these weekends not going well and having multiple fatal crashes that cause loss of life and loss of community members. To the point earlier about sort of that the the human impact and and the the human impact of these crashes, it's important for everyone to remember especially um every traffic death is the death of someone's family member, someone's father, mother, sister, brother, teacher from school, other community member, neighbor. The those deaths have impacts that ripple across our community. And there are impacts to you if you're operating the vehicle. If if if you survive, I mean you may be killed. You yourself may be killed, but then you also may have consequences that are life-changing for you as well. So you may have criminal or civil penalties. You may have as certainly, you know, the memory and legacy of being involved in in one of these really horrific situations and having a role in that. And so we think it's really important for everyone to remember that these are preventable, that traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable if we can design our streets safer, if we can work together as a community to each take action to help ourselves and our neighbors get a safe ride home. >> Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you to all our speakers. Really appreciate it. Thank you for humoring me with a couple of my own questions and thank you for coming. It's a really important message and and crystal clear that it's not just about the Portland Police Bureau or OSP. I mean it's it's all of us. PBOT, OLCC are our partner law enforcement agencies. So again, appreciation to you for sharing this message over the coming days. Have a good holiday and enjoy it responsibly. Thank you. >> [music]