Car Prowler Arrested in Pearl District

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

GoLocalPDX News Team

30-year-old James Patrick Brown; courtesy of the Portland Police Bureau

Portland Police Bureau officers arrested one of two suspected car prowlers in Northwest Portland’s Pearl district on Tuesday morning.

Central Precinct officers responded to the REI parking garage, located at 1405 Northwest Johnson Street, at 4:06 AM after receiving reports that two suspects were seen walking into the parking garage. One suspect was said to be wearing a black mask and the other was hiding his face using a bandana.

Officers arrived at the garage and established containment around the buildings and began to search of the two suspects. Officers located one suspect on the fourth floor. He ran from officers, jumping over a retaining wall to drop to the third floor, narrowly missing a police car driving through the garage.

The suspect then fired his way through an exterior mesh window covering and climbed out onto a glass awning above the sidewalk. Officers outside the garage convinced the suspect to climb down. He was taken into custody.

Officers, including a Police Canine Unit, continued to search the garage but did not locate the second suspect. Officers did locate several cars that had been broken into.

The arrested suspect was identified as 30-year-old James Patrick Brown. He was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on charges of unlawful entry into a motor vehicle, criminal mischief, attempted possession of methamphetamine.

The Portland Police Bureau would like to remind community members to keep the interior of their vehicles "showroom" clean. Community members are advised never to leave valuables, including bags, purses, wallets, briefcases, laptops, tablets, cell phones, loose change or anything that may appear valuable to a thief in plain view.

Related Slideshow: Crime Trends in Portland - Good News and Bad News

The Portland Police Bureau's Strategic Services Division and the Criminology and Criminal Justice program at Portland State University (PSU) have partnered to provide an interactive tool to provide a longer term look at crime trends.

The interactive data shows the geographic distribution of crime in the city; and reveals insights into crime data.

See key findings below.

Prev Next

Vandalism

GOOD NEWS: Overall, the news in Portland is positive regarding incidents of vandalism, but the decline has not been as rapid as some other crimes.

Vandalism has remained relatively consistent for the past five years.

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Domestic

GOOD NEWS: Domestic assaults saw significant decline in the late 1990s, but have been fairly consistent in the past five years.

Prev Next

Guns

GOOD NEWS: The number of gun related crimes has seen the greatest declines of any of the tracked crime sectors.

Gun related crimes decreased 80%.

Prev Next

Bikes

BAD NEWS: The theft bikes has seen an 83% increase. Some of this is tied to the increase in biking, but the crime has been the biggest blemish on the crime trends.

Prev Next

Robbery

GOOD NEWS: Street Robbery is down more than 25 years, but it has been fairly stagnant during the past five years.

Prev Next

Non-Domestic Assaults

GOOD NEWS: The number of non-domestic assaults has remained relatively stagnant over the past five years.

Prev Next

GOOD NEWS: Home breakins are down significantly, but like other categories (non-domestic assault and robbery) it has remained fairly constant during the past five years.

Over the 25 years residential robberies are down over 70%.