Task Force on Community Safety and Firearm Suicide Prevention

The Oregon State Legislature established the Task Force on Community Safety and Firearm Suicide Prevention (the “Task Force”) during in the 2024 legislative session. The purpose of the Task Force is to coordinate with the Department of Justice, the Oregon Health Authority, sheriff departments that provide for voluntary storage of firearms, federally recognized Indian tribes in this state, faith-based groups in this state and the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide to study best practices for reducing deaths from community safety threats and for suicide prevention. The Task Force brings together representatives with diverse experiences and areas of expertise to accomplish this purpose and is staffed by Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ). More specifically, the Task Force is meeting regularly to study:

  • How to better support youth experiencing suicidal ideation;
  • How to better support rural Oregonians experiencing suicidal ideation;
  • How to reduce stigma on suicidal ideation;
  • Barriers to suicide prevention support;
  • Current community safety protocol across this state, including at hospitals and behavioral health facilities, and recommendations for improvement of the protocol;
  • Locations and events most targeted in community safety threats;
  • Rates of success for extreme risk protection orders and barriers to implementation and capacity for police stations or other entities to implement voluntary surrender or holding of firearms;
  • Barriers to implementing best practices for community safety and suicide prevention;
  • How domestic violence is a risk factor for community safety threats and suicide; and
  • Risks to first responders.

For more information about these meetings, see Next Task Force Meeting and Meetings Archives below.

To make a public records request or provide input about the Task Force’s work, please contact the Task Force at Community.Safety@doj.oregon.gov.

Task Force Membership

Senator Floyd Prozanski
Senator David Brock Smith
Representative Jason Kropf
Representative Rick Lewis
Dean Sidelinger
Valerie Colas
Donna-Marie Drucker
Paul Kemp
Kathleen Carlson

Vanessa Timmons
Emmy Ritter
Matthew Crabtree
Andrew White
Andy Leonard
Jerome Sloan II
Chris Burley
James Dixon

Next Task Force Meeting

Date: Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Time: 10am-noon

Location: Via Microsoft Teams (See Public Meeting Notice)

Materials:

Future Meetings:

  • Monday, November 4, 2024

Legislative Reports

Meeting Archives

  • Materials from past meetings will be added here.

Online Resources