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Dept of Justice Lawsuit Settlement Ahead
Fairness Hearing Set in Early 2014

Representatives of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the City of Portland held a November 6 news conference to announce the DOJ's lawsuit against the City would not be proceeding to trial next summer as planned, because the Portland Police Association (PPA) had agreed with some stipulations to allow the case to be settled out of court. Also at the news conference was Dr. T. Allen Bethel of the Albina Ministerial Alliance (AMA) Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, who made it clear that the AMA Coalition's "collaborative agreement" about the DOJ's proposed changes (PPR #60) provides for the community to push for changes to and beyond the Settlement Agreement. Judge Michael Simon will hold a "Fairness Hearing" for community input on February 18, potentially ordering the City and DOJ to make changes based on that input, then push the reforms forward.

The PPA reserved the right to challenge aspects of the Agreement, including a provision to interview officers right away after deadly force incidents. Mayor Hales indicated that the PPA's "48-hour rule" will have to be discussed later. Another item targeted by the "union" is the proposed ability of the Independent Police Review Division to compel officer testimony (article). The PPA was able to get some tweaks made to the revised Use of Force policies, pulling out decision-point analysis of their actions and placing that into the "performance" directive. This likely means individual acts of violence will never be found out of policy.

On December 18, Council voted to adopt the new PPA contract (article) and the PPA's memorandum of agreement on the DOJ settlement despite concerns raised by the community. The City linked the collective barganing to the DOJ process, calling their votes part of a "global settlement."

Meanwhile, the Bureau assigned Captain Mike Marshman to replace Captain Pat Walsh as the Compliance Coordinator for the Agreement. To his credit, Marshman responded positively to Portland Copwatch's inquiries after the DOJ-mandated Use of Force Quarterly Reports went on line lacking demographic data. Marshman determined that two reports will now be posted, one about use of force only and one including demographics. The third quarter reports, posted in November, show that African American and Native American Portlanders received disproportionate amounts of force to their numbers in the population: 24% of force used (and 30% of firearms pointed) was against African Americans, who make up 6% of Portland, while 3% of force and 6% of taserings affected Native Americans, just 1% of the populace. Taser use also rose over the summer, including more multiple strikes from Tasers, which is one area of violence the DOJ called out in its report in the first place.

The Behavioral Health Unit (BHU), also created in response to the DOJ report, finally posted a list of most of the members of its Advisory Committee. BHU has been generating a monthly newsletter that appears to be mostly for public relations rather than looking at any difficult discussions about how police interact with people who have or who are perceived to have mental illness.

January, 2014
Also in PPR #61

Portland Copwatch
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

People's Police Report #61 Table of Contents
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