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IPR Director Quits; Only One Citizen Review Committee Hearing in Four Months

Over the first four months of 2019, the Citizen Review Committee (CRC), which in 2017 was holding so many appeals on police misconduct cases they had to schedule extra meetings, heard just one appeal.* They did not ask to significantly change the findings. A hearing that was scheduled to go to City Council in February was postponed until May. CRC's Work Groups, which have been dormant for months/years began meeting again,* with the Crowd Control Work Group holding a public forum on April 10. Meanwhile, the "Independent" Police Review (IPR), which houses CRC, hired a former Portland Police Captain, Vince Elmore, to be one of their "civilian" investigators. In late March, Director Constantin Severe-- who has served a record term of just under six years at IPR's helm-- announced he was resigning in early April to work as a policy advisor for Governor Kate Brown.

Case 2018-x-0004 Officer Used Excessive Force by Violently Shoving Legal Observer at Protest

After CRC sent back case 2018-x-0004 for more investigation in September (PPR #76), the Bureau returned in February with the same findings. They claimed more witnesses and video did not prove Officer David Hughes (#50499) used excessive force when he pushed National Lawyers Guild (NLG) legal observer Christopher Kuttruff at a 2017 protest, nor that he failed to give a warning before using force. CRC's appeal hearing touched on many key issues, such as whether the officer could have used less force and how close Kuttruff actually came to the officer. The supervisor who spoke at the meeting said he was within two feet, but video clearly shows Hughes took a step forward before knocking Kuttruff onto his rear.

CRC voted to uphold the Bureau's "Exonerated" findings, but asked to add a debriefing about the use of force, noting that the amount of force and indeed the force itself were not necessary, even if they were within policy. The vote on the force allegation was 7-2, with Administrative Law Judge Vadim Mozyrsky and aspiring politician Neil Simon voting against. The vote about whether the officer failed to give a warning was 9-0. However, to illustrate the limitations of the CRC's ordinance, which requires them to defer to the Bureau if a "reasonable person" could come to the same conclusion, they took symbolic votes on each allegation as well. The outcomes on the force allegation were muddled because they did not vote on a motion: four members said they would have voted to find the officer out of policy, one would have affirmed the Exonerated finding with a debriefing, one would have voted there was insufficient evidence, and three abstained from the vote. For the lack of warning, six said they'd have voted to affirm the Bureau's finding, one disagreed, and two abstained.

One person who abstained both times was Albert Lee, who made a speech about the futility of trying to make the CRC system work at all. Perhaps because he has missed the many years where the Standard of Review discussion has been going on, Lee did not realize that recording symbolic votes is an excellent way to show how things would be different with a less deferential review standard such as "preponderance of the evidence." Notably, in its Fourth Quarter 2018 report, the Compliance Officer/ Community Liaison wrote: "We note that should the standard of review be changed, we do not believe it would impact the City and PPB's compliance with [the US Dept of Justice Settlement Agreement]."

Crowd Control Work Group Listens to Community Concerns on Policing at Protests

After postponing their community forum in February due to weather concerns, CRC held its Crowd Control Forum at Portland State University on April 10. They heard from about a dozen community members (including three people from Portland Copwatch), who talked about being hit with chemical and physical weapons, the cozy text messages between the cops and the alt-right (p. 1), and the general way in which militarized officers' presence escalates things unnecessarily. The event was set up with small tables for specific topics, meaning many people never were able to hear the concerns that others brought to the conversation.

The Crowd Control Work Group has set up to meet monthly* and is expected to use the forum as a guide toward making recommendations for changes to PPB policy. They announced plans to hold more forums to collect public input.

Other IPR/CRC Activities January- April 2019

--CRC was unable to proceed with what will eventually be the third-ever appeal to City Council under the 2002-created system in February. This is the hearing about Case 2018-x-0003, in which CRC found an officer retaliated against an activist for video-recording him driving an armored vehicle when he ordered her to be cited for jaywalking (PPR #76). The appellant discovered two members of City Council would be absent and asked for the postponement.

--At the March meeting, PPB civilian employee Tammy Mayer made a presentation about Body Cameras (p. 5). Surprisingly for a group focusing on police accountability, no CRC member suggested discipline for officers who fail to record critical incidents.

--In April, Chair Kristin Malone and Vice Chair Candace Avalos were re-elected; Kayla Wade was made CRC Recorder.

--In December, CRC's Recurring Audit Work Group asked IPR to pull files representing various paths complaints can take-- investigations, mediation, dismissals and "Supervisory Investigations"-- so they could do an initial review for patterns or concerns. As of mid-March, they had not begun reviewing the files.*

--CRC's Force Work Group held its first meeting in early March, focusing on how CRC could effectively comment on the Bureau's Directives when the group only meets once a month, while deadlines are 15 or 30 days from the time the policies are posted.

--Mary Hull Caballero, the elected City Auditor, posted a sarcastic remark on Twitter (January 17) after the lawyer for the person who was nearly killed by a PPB less lethal weapon last August expressed concerns to the media that IPR's questions were more about blaming his client than seeking accountability. She wrote, "NEWS FLASH: Lawyer flummoxed to learn investigations to determine police misconduct involve questions and evidence gathering."

--IPR has posted online data about the complaints it processes in an interactive database which allows users to check, for example, how many use of force allegations were filed by African American complainants in 2018. The link is portlandoregon.gov/ipr/article/713752.

For more information contact IPR at 503-823-0146.

*
CRC did not hold a general meeting in January; the Crowd Control and Recurring Audit Work Groups canceled their meetings in April for lack of quorum.
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May, 2019
Also in PPR #77

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.

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