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Quick Flashes #35
Portland Cops Head to DC For Inauguration: Deputized Mercenaries for the Feds?
Nineteen Portland police officers traveled to Washington, DC for the Presidential Inauguration on January 20; to participate, they were deputized as federal agents and worked with US Marshals, DC Metropolitan Police, US Park Police (Secret Service) and the FBI. Despite the Portland City Council's reservations about the lack of oversight for its officers in the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force (PJTTF-see article), they unanimously approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) allowing the officers to go.
![[Picture of cops in
DC]](copsindc.gif)
Although the MOU's wording was ambiguous, the Police Bureau claimed that the feds and the DC
Police would reimburse the City, one of the "selling points" for Council. If our officers can be
whisked off the streets by the highest bidder, when we are constantly told how understaffed they
are, doesn't it make them a kind of mercenary squad?
But our larger concern was possible misconduct by the officers. The police claimed that since a Captain, Lieutenant and Sergeant were among those travelling to Washington, there would be plenty of accountability. However, as deputized federal agents, it is unclear whether Chief Foxworth and the Police Commissioner (Mayor Potter) could review their work. The officers, most of whom are part of Portland's "Rapid Response Team," might have been used for surveillance or on-the-street repression to target people expressing their First Amendment rights.
The Council never answered what might happen if an officer committed an act of misconduct while in Washington. Would the DC local Internal Affairs investigate? If so, what possible discipline could they have imposed on Portland officers? If not, would Portland's Internal Affairs Division (IAD) investigate allegations about an incident 3000 miles away?
The flip side of this concern was raised by the City's bringing in officers from other jurisdictions to patrol the many protests going on in Portland for the Inauguration. We wonder whether officers from other agencies who come to Portland can be held accountable since they are not subject to review by the Independent Police Review Division or the IAD. As it happens, the police got into a standoff in Portland with protestors at the end of a permitted march, arresting a few and confiscating the truck of one of the organizers. It's not clear if they were all Portland officers.
Public Records Not So Public in Eyes of Police
Despite state laws requiring most public records to be open to inspection, Oregon journalists found that many cities and towns in the state were unwilling to comply with records requests, with "police and sheriff's offices the least helpful and most intimidating" (kgw.com/Associated Press, March 13). Their study noted Portland's records division won't fill requests like "the last five drunken driving arrests," because the last five change too frequently. The study quoted Tim Gleason at the University of Oregon's journalism school saying that there is a risk of being sued for giving out the wrong information, but "no real cost to saying 'no.'"The chief deputy of Wallowa County said "I wasn't going to hand our files to anybody....without a subpoena." On the other hand, Wasco County District Attorney Eric Nisley directed their Sheriff to comply, noting "You can't ask them who they are [or] why they want it...we want to make sure we give people whatever it is they're entitled to, because that's the purpose of the law." So...Portland Police, IPR Division, and the FBI--take note.