'I'm proud of this place': Police chief reflects on first year-plus in Lake Oswego

Editor's note: This story appears in the February edition of LO Monthly.

Over a year into his tenure, Police Chief George Burke’s enthusiasm for serving the city of Lake Oswego has not waned. In fact, it may have grown.

“I’m proud of this place. I’m super proud to be chief of police in Lake Oswego. It’s not just lip service. So often, I wonder how I ended up in such a great circumstance; it’s been one of the best moves I ever made,” he said.

Burke, who joined the city in September 2022 after working for departments in Salem and Portland, chatted with the Review about some of his observations and changes in Lake Oswego since he came on board.

Upon assuming the role, one of Burke’s primary goals was increasing transparency and communication with the residents of Lake Oswego. He said the department has done that by providing up-to-date information on its website on recent crime data, and that it is working on creating a tool for people to look at neighborhood-specific data so they have a sense of activity on a granular level.

Burke also mentioned the importance of keeping staff morale high and being more thoughtful about taking disciplinary action. He said the department implemented a database where administration can look at officers’ files and examine what they have been exposed to (such as working on cases involving violent crime or death). Sometimes bad feelings from traumatic incidents can linger and impact performance, Burke noted. In turn, the department has moved away from discipline as the only response and encourages officers to seek counseling.

“We all want to leave something behind. I don’t want my legacy to be about me. I want someone to take a look at the agency to say we did everything they could to make sure they (officers) were as happy and healthy the day they retired as the day they were joined,” he said.

Burke noted that the department went through myriad changes around the time that he was hired. It added body cameras, provided publicly-accessible data, worked to increase diversity in the force, hired a behavioral health specialist to assist with mental health calls and increased community outreach.

In turn, he said he wants to let some of these changes breathe rather than trying to implement major new changes at this time.

However, Burke added that while the police force is well staffed and does a good job covering the community, increased resources for mental health services might be a worthy investment for the city in the coming years. The city’s current behavioral health specialist, Amber Hambrick, splits her time with West Linn and has other responsibilities like conducting training with staff. Some calls, Burke said, don’t need officer response and require more of a mental health expertise. Others warrant response from both officers and Hambrick.

“There is an ongoing, growing need to help people with behavioral health issues,” he said. “We could use additional resources in behavioral health. I think anyone could.”

Burke has tried to continue a culture that is service-oriented and focused on having empathy for people.

“What if this was your family member receiving the service? Something that is mundane to you is someone else’s worst moment. We are focusing on transparency and relationships and community engagement. That’s nothing new. We did that before. We are constantly talking about it and focusing on those things,” he said.

In terms of local crime, Burke held a presentation a few months ago with the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce about burglary and theft and at the time reported an increase in burglaries from the previous year. However he said that, since then, those crimes have dipped back down to more normal rates. And he noted that violent crime in Lake Oswego is very low.

“Ultimately we finished out lower (than the previous year),” he said regarding annual burglary stats.

The police will conduct patrols in areas where they begin to see a trend or hear concerns from the community and Burke encouraged people to call the police’s non-emergency line if they have noticed anything abnormal. Further, he recommended residents sign up for alerts from the department. For more information, visit www.ci.oswego.or.us/city manager/public-alerts- emergency-notification.