Correction appended

Updated September 20

A group of Portland residents has started a petition calling on the mayor and other city officials to do more to stop property crimes and improve livability across the city by cracking down on homeless camps.

Enough is Enough PDX's online petition had garnered more than 1,900 signatures by early Thursday. The group claims camps have fostered violent crimes, drug use, home burglaries, fires and pollution in residential neighborhoods. Many members of the group reside in the Montavilla neighborhood, bordered on the west by Interstate 205.

The petition contends response times for 911 and non-emergency calls involving people who are homeless are delayed or ignored. City sweeps of camps are ineffective and lead to people returning to campsites, the petition claims.

The petition calls on Mayor Ted Wheeler to tour neighborhoods and talk to residents and work to address their concerns, as well as to identify the needs of people in the area who are homeless and offer more support to police officers.

The petition also demands Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and Commissioner Nick Fish increase ATV patrols and rangers in parks in East Portland. Oregon Department of Transportation leaders should prevent people from camping on their properties, and Multnomah County commissioners should consider investing more into needle exchange programs, the petition says.

The city has removed 4,272 bags of trash and cleaned around 150 campsites in the East Portland area, according to Sophia June, a spokeswoman for Wheeler. Police have also responded to more than 3,600 calls for service in the Montavilla neighborhood alone between March and August 2018.

"The Mayor's Office hears the concerns of the neighborhood and we are doing as much as we can with the resources we have," June said in in email.

In a statement Thursday, the Portland Police Bureau said officers respond to calls for service related to the homeless community daily and the bureau's call load has increased 10 percent over last year.

The majority of calls officers respond to are calls involving disturbances that include trespassing, people using drugs or drinking in public, assaults, threatening behavior and other issues that effect both people and people who are homeless, the police bureau said.

"Police didn't create this issue, nor can we solve it, but we want to help and respond in the most appropriate manner," the police bureau said. "This is a societal issue that involves mental health, substance abuse, equity as it relates to education or jobs; and of course, affordable housing. No one-size-fits-all solution exists."

The police bureau said that one reason officers struggle to respond to all calls for service in a timely manner is because of a shortage of officers.

The agency has 70 open positions for officers and 89 new hires that are either training or on a probationary period that doesn't allow them to respond to service calls alone, police said. Hiring and training officers can take more than two years.

Officers understand concerns about crimes occurring near their homes and businesses, the police bureau said. The agency offers services that help people obtain sobriety, housing and mental health treatment and works with other agencies to address illegal campsites.

The police bureau also said it's using data it collects to focus on so-called problem areas and to help determine where to increase resources to address concerns.

Enough is Enough PDX adopted the same name as another community initiative that has been around since 2014 and is aimed at encouraging residents to help prevent gang and youth violence in Portland neighborhoods. The older group has worked in coordination with Portland police.

The petition follows an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive of city arrest data that found 52 percent of the arrests Portland police made in 2017 were of homeless people, who make up less than 3 percent of the population. Homeless people were most often arrested on property, drug or low-level crimes, the data showed. More than 1,200 arrests were for missing court appearances or violating probation or parole. Allegations of non-violent crimes made up 86 percent of the arrests.

The American Civil Liberties of Oregon called on Wheeler and Outlaw to investigate whether officers are profiling people who are homeless. The city's police oversight agency has since launched an investigation into how Portland police officers interact with people who are homeless. Outlaw requested the investigation.

Wheeler has called for further review to know how many arrests were related to calls from the public in comparison to contact initiated by police officers.

Note: A previous version of this story contained a misspelling of the mayor's spokeswoman's name.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey