Wheels of Police Accountability Grind Slowly at "Independent" Police Review Division
New member inducted, retreat held, still no new hearings

Unappealing Qualities

In February, CRC member Sherrelle Owens questioned why there are so few appeals. The IPR does not include an appeal form when they send a "disposition letter" explaining the investigation's outcome to complainants. In March, with Owens absent, Stevens said that her reasoning is to allow complainants to make a "thoughtful decision." While Stevens shrugged and suggested that she was willing to change the policy, it was pretty clear that she prefers not having to deal with unsatisfied "customers." New CRC member Josey Cooper accepted Stevens' explanation. It remains to be seen whether more will be done to increase the number of hearings, which offer the CRC and the public a view of specific ways the Bureau interacts with Portlanders. In 2002, the CRC heard 60 cases. In 2003, it was just 20, in 2004, they were down to 9, and 2005 and 2006 had just 3 appeals each, with only one full hearing held in each year.

In April, four more appeals were announced and scheduled for full hearings at the May and June meetings, without the IPR's cumbersome "pre-hearing" process. Because of the previous lack of appeals, member Bob Ueland recommended that the CRC conduct a random audit of Internal Affairs files to ensure that cases are being handled properly. Even with the new appeals, this audit would be worth doing.

In other news, Sgt. Mitch Copp reported that the IPR refused to let an officer file an appeal of a sustained finding because the complainant, who happened to be a defense attorney, initially contacted the Bureau directly and not the IPR (Rap Sheet, March 2007).

Retreating from Responsibilities; Policy Recommendations Too Little, Too Late?

In reviewing the Bureau's towing policies, the IPR blocked a recommendation to provide sliding scale fees for towed vehicles. Director Stevens explained there weren't any complaints filed with them about costs and there was no public testimony on the issue. However, input was provided by former CRC member Theresa Keeney and Portland Copwatch's Dan Handelman. The Tow Policy Work Group's recommendations are expected out in May. Interestingly, the Bureau participated in many of the Work Group's meetings held since May, 2006 and assured the CRC there were no changes in the works to the existing tow policy. However, in January when a new set of directives was published ( http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=32482), the tow policy was modified without the CRC's input. It is hard to tell if this was a bureaucratic SNAFU or just an FU to the IPR.

The Bureau also created a new medical transport policy without input from the CRC (see Chasse article).

Memberships Due

Things may soon get interesting for Marcella Red Thunder, who was replaced by Milesnick after she missed five meetings and the Auditor didn't invite her to reapply for her seat because he "figured" she didn't want it (PPR #40). One board member, Remi Ogouma, has not attended a single meeting or work group since October (six months as of mid-April), yet the CRC does not yet have a protocol to remove members for lack of participation. Red Thunder spoke at the February CRC meeting, noting that many of Portland's 38,000 Native Americans--including what she says are 32 people who approached her personally with police complaints since she was removed from the board in January--are reluctant to file complaints because they do not see representation of their community.

In February, the CRC adopted new rules on voting for its officers, ignoring Portland Copwatch's suggestion to delay the election until April or May. Our idea would have allowed new members to participate in an informed way, maybe even run for office. Laughter abounded as the previous Chair, Vice Chair and Recorder were re-nominated and a motion was immediately made to close the nominations (with the exception of the Chair position, where a second member was nominated). So long as the CRC's officer positions are filled by momentum rather than careful consideration, the process appears undemocratic. Bob Ueland, the CRC member who quickly moved to close the nominations, also regularly makes motions to uphold Police Bureau findings immediately at appeals hearings (PPR #40).

Another Grassroots Presentation on Homeless Issues

Bayer also emphasized the confusion in the community as to the powers of private security downtown. In terms of accountability, he noted that people do not want to call Portland Patrol, Inc. (the main business doing private patrols for the Business Alliance) to investigate the people who they say have mistreated them. This is the same concern people have with calling the IPR to complain about the police, since full investigations are conducted by the Police Bureau.

As the Work Groups Turn

Meanwhile, the Bias Based Policing work group has met several times, with chair Sherrelle Owens working to keep information organized while the group decides exactly what information it will review. The group is both hampered by and encouraged by the existence of the Mayor's Racial Profiling Committee (see article). While there may be some overlap, "Bias based policing" deals with much more than just race, and the CRC has a unique perspective since they are able to review actual complaints filed and investigated.

The protocols work group continues to look at the CRC's internal workings, adopting some rules quickly and putting others off for the future.

Back at the retreat, Director Stevens squashed the idea of permanent work groups by reading the literal language of the IPR ordinance which allows the CRC "to create special purpose subcommittees... to address particular short-term issues and needs." Chair Hank Miggins later suggested that the protocol workgroup should review the ordinance--maybe this will be one area they can fix.

Some CRC members helped review officer Use of Force data for a report to be released April 24, after PPR deadline.

Sidebar:

News You Can Use

--The long-awaited Early Warning System, which morphed into the Early Intervention System, is now renamed the "Employee Information System." Despite assurances in 2000 that the EWS was working just fine, it is clear that the ability to track which officers have repeated acts of misconduct that should lead to disciplinary action (or at least counseling) has never really been functional. CRC member Llewellyn Robison noted that the new EIS will include information such as awards, car crashes, and problem behavior. One reason it isn't finished: some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate.