Portland police are considering moving Central Precinct out of downtown to a former Army Reserve center in Southwest Portland, which for the first time would leave the city's core without a major uniformed police presence.

The bureau's budget request submitted this week seeks $1.7 million in one-time funding to renovate the Jerome F. Sears U.S. Army Reserve Center on Southwest Multnomah Boulevard for use as a precinct.

Central Precinct, on the ground floor of the Justice Center, is extremely overcrowded, lacks space for community meetings, is not up to seismic code and affords scarce parking for police vehicles or officers' personal cars, according to the bureau's budget package.

Police supervisors have discussed the idea for at least two years, but for the first time it has been put in writing and publicly disclosed in a budget document with a specific request for funding.

"This is all conceptual,'' Assistant Chief Chris Davis said Thursday. "We're still talking about a concept. ... What we really want is a facility that meets all of our space needs and more importantly, enhances the services we provide to the community.''

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as police commissioner, signed the bureau's budget package submitted to the city this week but declined, through his spokesman, to say whether he supports such a move.

"We are not at the point yet where the mayor is making judgments on specific budget offerings from the bureaus,'' said spokesman Michael Cox.

Central Precinct is the only of the bureau's three precincts with a front desk that remains open 24 hours, seven days a week, allowing people to walk up and request to speak to an officer or report a crime. The precinct serves downtown and the Southwest and Northwest Portland neighborhoods, a population of about 200,000 residents over 41.3 square miles.

But the precinct's 18,457-square-feet is insufficient, resulting in crowded work spaces and inadequate community rooms, Davis said. In contrast, East Precinct is 35,000 square feet.

The bureau informed the city's Bureau of Internal Business Services of its needs, and the Sears building was recommended.

The bureau, working with a planning consultant, determined the structure would accommodate the precinct's needs, at least temporarily.

"The Jerome Sears building is an interim solution, as the bureau plans to propose the site be used to construct a purpose-built precinct including an emergency response facility,'' the bureau's budget proposal says.

If the decision is made to relocate the precinct to the former army reserve center, the long-term proposal under consideration is to eventually have a new precinct built at the Southwest Multnomah Boulevard site, Davis said. The assistant chief said he didn't have a cost estimate for that type of project.

The bureau is consider moving the 126 officers assigned to Central Precinct, but not the other police divisions that fill police headquarters on the Justice Center's floors 11 through 16. Those include the chief's office, detectives, internal affairs, records, forensic and fiscal divisions.

Police supervisors and city officials turned to the Sears building, which is located in a residential neighborhood, after they were unable to find other space available downtown.

"That's not necessarily a plus,'' Davis said of the location. But considering high rents downtown and lack of available space, some tradeoffs must be made, the assistant chief said.

The proposed site allows for quick access to Interstate 5. A precinct in what's largely a residential neighborhood also may give area residents a greater sense of safety, the budget proposal says.

But the current location is crucial, for example, for officers monitoring large-scale marches or demonstrations. For that reason, the bureau proposes maintaining a contact office at the Justice Center, including the current roll call room, report writing area and storage space for police equipment. It's also considering smaller contact offices elsewhere downtown.

"Our patrol officers are out in the community anyway all day,'' Davis said.

Currently, the Police Bureau pays $505,344 to lease Central Precinct from the city's Office of Management and Finance, which owns the Justice Center building. That includes an agreement with the Portland Bureau of Transportation for use of several floors of the parking garage across the street.

Renting the Sears building, in contrast, would cost an estimated $379, 317. The leftover money would go toward renovating the army reserve center.

The city acquired the Sears property in September 2012 from the federal government with the provision that the building primarily be used for emergency management services. From November 2015 through about May 2016, the city set up a temporary women's shelter in the building.

The request to fund renovations for the Sears building is part of the bureau's $12.3 million spending plan for fiscal year 2018-2019, which also requests 93 new officer positions and replacement of mobile data computers in police cars. The City Council would need to approve any funding.

As requested by the mayor, the police bureau also presented potential areas for cuts in the next budget. Those could include four of nine desk clerk positions, which would end the front desk coverage, available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at East and North precincts.

If the four desk-clerk jobs are eliminated in next year's budget, the bureau would consider setting up self-service kiosks in the precinct lobbies for online report writing, Davis said.

The last significant change to precincts was made nine years ago. In 2009, the council voted to support then-Chief Rosie Sizer's plan to consolidate precincts from five to three, eliminating patrol operations from Southeast and North precincts.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian