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Civilian Board for DOJ Force Agreement Staggers to Life, Compliance Officer Over-Rates Its Effectiveness The Portland Committee for Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP), the 13-member board created to oversee the US Department of Justice Settlement Agreement seeking to reduce Portland Police Use of Force, lost three members, a facilitator and a staff person in its first three months of operation. After first meeting in November (PPR #76), the group struggled to form subcommittees, which finally started meeting in February. Their January meeting included a presentation by the Compliance Officer / "Community Liaison" (COCL) on a new quarterly report looking at the city's police accountability systems and community engagement-- including PCCEP's role. Despite the committee's nascent nature and bumpy start-up, the COCL gave high ratings to the PCCEP, saying they foresee Substantial Compliance based on progress they "anticipate" the group will make. The COCL team, whose members are now split between Los Angeles and Chicago, continues to minimize problems facing Portlanders, including a rave review of the Bureau's misleading data on Racial Profiling. Report Supports PPB Analysis that African Americans are Not Over-Represented in Traffic Stops The COCL's report gave Substantial (or "Substantial-conditional") ratings to 27 of 32 paragraphs they analyzed, including Paragraph 148 which requires continued collection and analysis of stop data. The Report talks about how the Bureau has done "excellent" work conducting a "thorough, sophisticated and transparent analysis" of the stop data, repeating without question the Bureau's 2016 annual report declaration that there are "no significant racial disparities" in how Portlanders are stopped. However, the overall rate at which African American Portlanders are stopped is 13% in a City which is 6% black. The COCL and PPB say it makes sense to use traffic accident data to approximate what ratio of all drivers are African American, but that number is 9%, meaning there is still a disparity. The COCL also claims the only racial disparity is in the Gang Enforcement Team (GET), which stops African Americans less than the Bureau would expect, even though an astonishing 61% of their stops are of black drivers. They say because 71% of victims of "gang violence" are African American, the GET is over-policing white and Latinx drivers. It does not make sense that presumed victims of crimes are more likely to be stopped by police. If crime victimization is the appropriate benchmark, then the statistic that 19% of crime victims are African American (per the FBI in PPB's report) means the overall stop number should be higher than 13%. Also, when reporting pedestrian stops are down by 87% in five years, the COCL ignores that the PPB claims they only stop people on foot or on bicycles 20-25 times per month. This is a falsehood based on the PPB's too-lenient definition of "mere conversation." To be fair, the COCL notes African Americans are searched at three times the rate expected (something Portland Copwatch [PCW] has pointed out for years), Native Americans are searched four times too much, and six out of ten people searched did not have contraband. The COCL's review of the city's oversight system focuses on how long investigations take, with barely a mention of community complaint outcomes. They praise the civilian-run "Independent" Police Review (IPR) for holding joint trainings with the Bureau's Internal Affairs (IA) unit. While that is troubling, the Report notes IPR seems to be more interested in prioritizing community concerns, while IA thinks everything is about the officer. In terms of community engagement, the COCL seriously suggests one form of community engagement is when the police perform traffic stops. The COCL further shows themselves to be out of touch by saying (without evidence) the Bureau is responsive to the community through stronger accountability, and talks about how officers respond to "delinquent youth" without arresting them. Out of 12 paragraphs involving PCCEP, only three are listed in "Partial" compliance: requiring PCCEP to help conduct a community survey and work on the Bureau's outreach plan; requiring the PPB to share precinct-related demographic data with the Committee; and requiring the DOJ, COCL and PPB to create metrics to measure the Bureau's engagement progress for PCCEP to review. PCCEP Meetings Dominated by Official Presentations; Early Turnover on Committee and Behind Scenes In addition to the COCL's presentation in January, PCCEP received briefings about the Bureau's proposed body camera program (p. 5) both in January and February. The PPB's Equity Manager and the new head of the Office of Equity and Human Rights (OEHR), which houses PCCEP's staff, made a presentation in February on city efforts toward diversity. The March meeting included the Chief and Officer Natasha Haunsperger giving a forty minute long summary of how the Bureau's outreach efforts taught them to listen, then taking questions. This does not leave PCCEP members a lot of time to discuss the issues assigned to them, much less make meaningful recommendations. They adopted general recommendations about the Bureau's Annual Report (including a suggestion from PCW that the Bureau make public presentations as required in the Agreement), but other ideas such as tweaks to the city-wide survey about police have been trickling in from individual members rather than as representative of the whole group.
The other facilitator, Brad Taylor, was only present for the first meeting. This led to awkward moments in January when an OEHR staffer and local DOJ Attorney Jared Hager shouted out guidance from the audience. While PCW has repeatedly cautioned the public body against having meetings out of the public eye, in February PCCEP held another "retreat" (in addition to several it held getting trained in October/November). It's not clear whether this helped with group cohesion, as a community member who attended PCCEP's March Steering Committee meeting reported only co-chair Lakayana Drury attended. The other subcommittees are around persons with mental health issues, people of color, policy issues and youth. Next Step: Hearing with Judge in June As a reminder, the DOJ Agreement is scheduled to head back to Judge Michael Simon on June 6, at which time the DOJ, COCL and PCCEP will all make presentations trying to prove the PCCEP is meeting the expectations of the Agreement (and the community). It seems a lot will have to happen in April and May to make a convincing case. See Portland Copwatch's analysis of the COCL report at portlandcopwatch.org/COCLquarterly0119_pcw.html.
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May, 2019
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
#77 Table of Contents
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In December, it was revealed Brandon Lee, one of the two
facilitators who had been hired to form and guide PCCEP, left his job after a dispute with the City.
It is not clear whether it was related to Lee asking for his contract to be extended past May, a
conflict with a member of PCCEP, a combination, or other items (Oregonian, December
19). Mandi Hood, who staffed the PCCEP's predecessor the Community Oversight Advisory
Board and PCCEP in its infancy, also quit in late 2018. PCCEP members Zacharay Thornhill,
Yolanda Clay, and Youth Member Kalonji Williams all resigned by the end of January. Because
the City (foolishly) only appointed six alternates-- one of whom, Taylor Ford, took themself out of
the running-- so only two more people were waiting in the wings in case other members quit. The
City put out a call for more people to apply with a deadline of early March, with interviews taking
place in April.