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2018's Second Police Review Board Report Continues to Shock the Conscience Following the unprecedented eight month delay in releasing its first Police Review Board (PRB) Report for 2018 (PPR #76), the Bureau finally published last year's second mandatory report in December, five months later than usual. Portland Copwatch found incidents of shocking behavior including several ranking officers whose actions the PRB described as inappropriate for those who should know better. The PRB involves either five or seven people: three members of the Bureau (four in deadly force cases), a staff person from the "Independent" Police Review, and one civilian (plus one Citizen Review Committee member in deadly force cases). The Report covers 16 cases heard between July 2017 and June 2018. Ten incidents involved civilians, including two officer- involved shootings. The shootings were (unsurprisingly) found in policy, and both resulted in the suspects being wounded. The narrative about the August 2017 shooting of Jesse Brockner (PPR #73) shows bias by the Board, saying for example that the suspect reaching around in his car posed a "deadly threat," even though that was just the officer's perception. To their credit, the PRB requested a debriefing for Officer David Staab, who shot Brockner-- not for any specific action, but as part of a suggestion to debrief all deadly force incidents. A similar bias can be seen in the summary of when Officer Ryan Reagan shot Chase Peeples in October 2017 (also PPR #73), claiming that Peeples holding out his wallet in a "shooting stance" was likely to cause death or injury to police or bystanders.
As with most PRB Reports, this one features an officer arrested for DUII. In this case, the officer also failed to tell his supervisor he was arrested, but only received two weeks off without pay. One officer was involved in two cases, apparently threatening a civilian in emails, then intimidating that same person for filing a complaint. The first incident only merited a day off without pay, but the retaliation led to the officer being fired. Supervisors are revealed to have been found out of policy: one for bullying other officers, another for using profane language in derogatory comments about another cop, and a third made demeaning comments. Another officer was found out of policy for making remarks so upsetting they were completely blacked out. The officer was reported to have "walked through the --blank---- while a -- blank-- was in progress" in 2016, then he or she "----blanked----, got up and made a comment before leaving the room." The two allegations of what was said are also redacted. PRB Reports need to be more descriptive to prove the Bureau's commitment to transparency. These violations were covered under a city rule which prohibits harassment, discrimination and retaliation. The officer resigned before facing a week off without pay. The PRB found two officers had policy violations around pursuits. One re-initiated a chase after it had been terminated, punched the suspect in the face and failed to report it. Chief Outlaw reversed the Pursuit violation and gave the cop a Letter of Reprimand. Another officer failed to assess the risk of a pursuit, and failed to follow an order to report it, later using another officer's computer log- in to do so. They were given two days off without pay. One case appears to be about Captain Larry Graham, who sent a list of officers with histories of lying to the District Attorney's office, for which PCW offered him a "Do the Right Thing" award (PPR #72). The unnamed supervisor used Bureau letterhead and mistakenly asserted that someone else had resigned while under scrutiny. He retired before being punished for being unprofessional by writing the letter. In the September Report, five of 24 officers were fired; in the December document it was just one out of 15. In all, the Board considered 53 allegations and found 34 Sustained, 11 Exonerated/In Policy, and 8 "Not Sustained." As usual, the high Sustain rate (64%) is because most incidents are referred to the Board only when someone recommends that finding in the first place. The December Report can be found at https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/article/706721. Portland Copwatch's full analysis is at http://portlandcopwatch.org/PRBanalysis1218.html. |
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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Two cases revolving around sex raised particular
concerns. In one, an officer took home a duplicate hard drive containing evidence of child
pornography, keeping it for two years-- but only receiving one week off without pay. In the other,
Officer Christian Berge used his position to engage in a sexual relationship with a woman
(