PDX311's July Program Report

City of Portland, Oregon sent this bulletin at 08/11/2025 11:35 AM PDT

Monthly Report

July 2025

PDX311 July, Smaller Sunday Parkways Image

Hours
7 a.m. - 8 p.m.
23 active staff

24,225
Contacts in July

76% of calls
answered in
25 seconds or less

What is 311?

311 provides a single point of contact for community members to access City
government and the services it provides. The program also provides information and referral services to the community for other local government, community and social services, including vital and time-sensitive public notification in emergency and disaster.

Contact Volume

In July 2025 PDX 311 answered 24,225 requests from community members, including phone calls, emails, and in-person requests at the Portland Building.

Contacts to PDX 311 in July grew 20% between 2023 and 2024.

Lines show numbers of contacts from all sources in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Contact volume by service

Community members contacted PDX 311 most frequently about reporting a campsite/requesting cleanup, automatic transfers from 503-823-3333 Public Safety Non-Emergency dispatch line, and Cooling Portland.

Bars show the number of times 311 assisted community members with services by July volume.

Contact volume by agency

Top three agencies by July contacts, grouped by jurisdiction.

Columns show the number of times 311 assisted community members with services provided by the corresponding bureau or jurisdiction.

Three-month contact volume trends

Top 10 bureaus by contact volume, from May through July.

Improving customer service across the City

PDX311 is working with the Bureau of Technology Services and many City programs to modernize and streamline phone, email, and online customer service and replace outdated technology like TrackIT. The goals of this work are to make it easier for community members to report common issues or request City services and to help City staff more efficiently respond to these requests.

To date, the team has launched 31 improved online forms on Portland.gov.

Recently launched services include:

Highest volume online services

In March, community members used these improved online forms to submit 33,529 reports, requests, and applications. The top five forms by number of submissions were: reporting a campsite, reporting fireworks, applying for a temporary street use permit, reporting an abandoned vehicle, and reporting graffiti.

Online forms with the greatest number of submissions in July.

PDX311, in partnership with public safety, has made reporting fireworks easy

July 4 has historically been the busiest night of the year for emergency responders, with fireworks often leading to fires, injuries, and, tragically, even deaths. In 2022, the City of Portland banned personal fireworks to reduce these risks. Still, the Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC/911) continues to be inundated with fireworks-related calls—many of which are non-life-threatening and do not require immediate emergency response.

To help address the high call volume and ensure community voices are heard, public safety partners from BOEC, the Portland Police Bureau, Portland Fire & Rescue, and PDX 311 came together to create a more efficient solution. The result: a user-friendly online reporting tool for illegal fireworks.

This tool allows community members to easily report fireworks activity online. It features interactive mapping technology to help pinpoint locations, and prompts users to describe what they saw or heard. Crucially, the form asks whether the incident involves a life-threatening emergency—ensuring that true emergencies are routed immediately to 911 dispatchers.

Fireworks reporting can be tricky, especially when the reporter hears fireworks but can't identify the exact location.

The form was designed with that in mind: users can submit a report even if they can only provide a general area. Thanks to the tremendous expertise of the PDX 311 team in designing accessible, intuitive, and people-first reporting tools, the form includes conditional logic and helpful prompts to guide users through the process.

Reporters can drop a pin on a map, enter an address, or describe landmarks or intersections. Sample reports included details like:

“It’s between Glisan and Burnside within the boundaries of 157th and 167th.”
“Could not pinpoint the house but very close to the intersection of Fenwick and Interstate.”

On July 4, 311 staff—who typically observe the federal holiday—opened specially to assist the community with fireworks reports. The program fielded 600 calls that day, including 120 related to fireworks. The online reporting form itself received an incredible 4,590 submissions during the fireworks season. This data has already proven invaluable in tracking problem areas and informing future public education and enforcement strategies.

Most importantly, the new reporting process helped reduce 911 call volume by 13% compared to the previous year. That’s not just a statistic—it’s a real-world impact that helps ensure faster emergency response for those who truly need it. In fact, the average 911 wait time on July 4 dropped from 26 seconds in 2024 to just 8 seconds in 2025.

Thanks to this collaborative effort and the exceptional service of the PDX 311 team, Portland took a major step toward a safer, more responsive Independence Day.

Fireworks Reporting Hot Spot Map