[2] In 1981, after eight narcotics officers of the Portland Police Bureau were implicated for misconduct, Schrunk, sought pardons from the governor for 58 people convicted.

[6] Schrunk's office prosecuted three men for beating and killing Ethiopian national Mulugeta Seraw in Southeast Portland in 1988.

[2] In 2002, Willamette Week searched through the trash of Schrunk, then-mayor of Portland Vera Katz and then-chief of Portland police Mark Kroeker, for a story in response to a controversial police decision endorsing the search of citizens' trash during investigations.

A 2019 Oregon Supreme Court ruling which referenced the story established that privacy rights do in fact extend to an individual's trash.

[13] In 2010, due to budget constraints, he made a controversial decision to no longer treat a number of illegal acts as crimes.

Mike Schrunk attended Roosevelt High School, where he was a star athlete, ultimately being inducted into the Portland Interscholastic League Hall of Fame for football, basketball, and baseball.

Today at Portland State University there is a scholarship given in his name called “The Mike Schrunk Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

[19] Following law school, Schrunk was commissioned in the United States Marine Corps and served in Vietnam at the height of the war.

[13] Among his most significant cases was his 1975 conviction of Colin Hockings for the widely publicized bludgeoning murder of a married couple and two children.

In May, 1980 it was discovered that members of the SID unit may have been planting drugs, falsifying affidavits, perjuring themselves in court and stealing undercover money.

[21] Immediately upon assuming office Schrunk formed an independent task force to address the scandal, which was under his exclusive control.

[24] Throughout his long tenure in office, Schrunk was a leading national advocate for specialized programs, which more effectively addressed criminal conduct.

[27][28] In November 1989, Schrunk convened a policy group composed of Children's Services Division, Portland Police Bureau, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Juvenile Court, Gresham Police Department, CARES NW, local hospitals, area schools, and the Multnomah County Health Division to develop interim protocols for how the county dealt with child abuse under the supervision of his Chief Deputy in charge of his Family Justice Division.

As a result of her involvement in the aftermath of the assault on Kerrigan, the United States Figure Skating Association banned her for life.

[32] Keith Hunter Jesperson is a Canadian American serial killer who killed at least eight women while working as a truck driver.

One of his victims was Taunja Bennett, whose body was found in early 1990 in a remote part of Multnomah County.

Schrunk's office moved successfully to have Pavlinac's and Sosnovske's convictions overturned, despite initial opposition by the court.