Portland police say they don't plan to blanket the city with uniformed officers to combat a surge in street shootings but will instead focus on the people whose names keep popping up at the scenes and arrest "the worst of the worst."

With limited resources, the Police Bureau wants to concentrate on doing stronger investigative work, Assistant Chief Kevin Modica said. That means carefully combing through police reports, processing evidence from seized guns and gathering intelligence from probation and parole officers and outreach workers.

"We're not going to cast a wide net ... not going to be haphazard about who we pursue,'' Modica said.

With a criminal intelligence analyst now working on the Gang Enforcement Team, officers are being directed to zero in on people whose names surface at multiple shooting scenes and get them into custody, police supervisors said.

Where officers in the past might have been instructed at roll calls to go out to talk to groups of young men if they're wearing certain gang colors or exhibiting gang behavior, officers now will work to identify repeat offenders and particular hot spots, North Precinct Cmdr. Chris Uehara said.

"We'll be focusing on the shooters - the worst of the worst,'' Uehara said. "As police, we evolve, we learn. The past strategies may not have been the most effective.''

Police described their enforcement efforts after Mayor Charlie Hales, Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill, Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy Williams, church leaders and community members affected by recent violence gathered at Peninsula Park to decry the recent spate of shootings.

An elderly couple, Charlie Mae Bradford, 82, and husband Robert Bradford, 89, woke up on March 24 to find their home on North Willis Boulevard riddled with bullets.

"I was sleeping until I heard shots,'' Charlie Mae Bradford said. She found bullet holes throughout her home and a glass patio door shattered.

Remarkably, she and her husband weren't harmed. But they're afraid.

"I'm just scared. I hope they don't come back,'' she said.

And she urged an end to the gun violence: "Please stop the shooting. We need to get back to caring for each other. Please put the guns down.''

City officials chose to speak out at Peninsula Park, where in the background, homes along North Albina Avenue, just north of Ainsworth Street, were hit last Sunday by more than four dozen shots fired shortly after midnight.

As of Tuesday, police have responded to 45 gang-related shootings, up from 36 gang-related call-outs at the same time a year ago. Fifteen people have been wounded so far this year and one person killed, with 414 bullet casings recovered at crime scenes, police said.

"No one's grandparents should be in this cross fire,'' Hales said. "No one's children should be in this cross fire. No Portlander should be in this cross fire.''

Police pledged to work more closely with probation and parole officers -- who in turn pledged to hold those under their supervision accountable if they're involved in the recent violence.

That could come through arrests, jail time, GPS monitoring or restrictions on travel or living arrangements, said Bryan Smith, a supervisor in Multnomah County's Department of Community Justice.

"We are determined to make sure these people are contained,'' Smith said.

The state's top federal prosecutor said people who end up getting prosecuted in federal court on weapons charges will go to prison.

"Taking the individuals who are pulling the triggers off the streets and incarcerating them, that's the way you make the city safer,'' Williams said. "When your report comes to our desk, it's too late to help you. You're going to prison.''

The shootings have included a handful since Saturday. About 8:25 p.m. Saturday night, gunshots rang out in Overlook Park off North Interstate Avenue. Just after midnight Sunday, 45 shots were fired at that corner of North Albina Avenue and Ainsworth Street. Three residences were struck - one home hit by 42 bullets, police said. No one was injured.

Later Sunday, gunfire was reported in the area of Northeast Holladay Street and Grand Avenue about 3:26 p.m. A parked car was damaged. Witnesses reported two groups of young men involved in a dispute when one in the group began shooting.

On Monday, at 5:21 pm., police responded to a brazen shooting outside a McDonald's drive-up window near Northeast 108th Avenue and Weidler Street involving teenagers. A 19-year-old was in a car that was fired on, then stepped out and started firing back, police said. He was arrested.

And about 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, police found a victim of a shooting in the 400 block of West Burnside in downtown Portland.

In 2015, the Gang Enforcement Team responded to 193 gang shootings, stabbings and assaults, the highest number since the Police Bureau began recording the data in 1998 and far above 109 in 2014.

Perlia Bell, whose daughter Asia Bell was fatally gunned down on her front porch in 2002, said she's angered that the violence continues.

"It starts at home,'' Bell said. "What is not taken care of at home is spilling out into our community.''

Pastor Mark Strong of Life Change Church urged residents not to point fingers but to work together to counsel and mentor at-risk youths, noting that most of the young people involved in the shootings suffer from a "void'' or absence in their lives.

"We all live here. This is all of our problem -- whether black, white, Hispanic,'' Strong said. "It's a city problem.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian