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Outlaw's Outpost: Chief Lowers Hiring Standards, Agrees to Disagree with Copwatch about Shootings

New Recruits Can Have Tattoos, No College Degrees

In 2007, then-chief Rosie Sizer proposed changing the requirements for hiring new officers by dropping a requirement for a two year degree, but adding that military service could waive the high school diploma or equivalency prerequisite (PPR #42). At the time, Portland Copwatch (PCW) expressed concern that "you can't adequately learn constitutional rights on the streets, but you can't really learn street smarts in college, so a balance is needed," as well as the possibility that veterans "trained to kill the 'enemy' in combat-- many with PTSD-- [would be] walking around Portland with guns." The two year degree never went away until late June, when Chief Outlaw announced she plans to go back to applicants having a GED by itself, without the addition of military or police service, to recruit more officers. The Portland Tribune quotes Zakir Khan of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oregon referencing research which shows more educated officers use less force.

The new rules also allow officers to have face or neck tattoos and even beards, undoing a sweeping militaristic policy started under Chief Kroeker in 2000 (PPR #21). There are some caveats, though, in the Bureau's existing tattoo policy, which prohibit "sexually explicit, racially or sexually biased [images] or [tattoos that] could be viewed as discriminatory" (Oregonian, June 21). PCW previously weighed in on the PPB's broad grooming standards about body art and hair noting they were out of step with modern times. As for the beards, the new policy may retain Kroeker's concern: officers have to be able to put on their gas masks.

Portland Copwatch Meets with Chief Again, Raising Concerns About Deadly Force and More

On June 20, Portland Copwatch held its fifth meeting with Chief Outlaw to raise concerns and hear the Bureau's position as directly as possible. We noted two more deadly force incidents had occurred since our last meeting, bringing the total to nine in nine months (see article). PCW had previously asked the Chief to use her position to raise concerns about the frequency of these incidents, which she has done but only in a vague way. At the meeting the Chief stated it's part of an officer's job. Our position is the job can be done without killing so many people. To be fair, the Chief used a good analogy: when you go to a crime-ridden part of town and say overall, crime is down in the City, the people don't see it happening; that is indeed similar to those of us who see all the deadly force and little of the de-escalation. The Chief acknowledged deadly force incidents are tragic for all involved, noting that one incident can negate the progress of building trust, and that nine is an "alarming number." Outlaw pointed to factors including an increase in cases involving "hostages." While we did not belabor the point, it is not clear whether the Samuel Rice or David Downs cases were hostage situations in a traditional sense. The Chief mentioned that people focus on the police because they are the ones who used the deadly force, but raised the issue about what is going on in our society which led the officers to be there at all.

We once again raised concerns that people on the street have told us their belongings-- including medication and identification-- have been confiscated and/or thrown out by police. While sometimes people may be conflating the PPB with the Rapid Response Bio-Clean Team, Clean and Safe or other players, since the PPB often accompanies crews for the clean up, they are implicated in the disappearance of these valuables. We noted the Auditor called attention to the trashing of valuables in a March audit and that the Bureau's Directive on "clean ups" is too vague about what items are of value. We also mentioned the factors leading to houselessness such as rising costs of living, and questionable tactics used to prevent camping like ODOT's million dollar boulders (see article).

PCW raised the concern that Chief Outlaw continued to push back against the Citizen Review Committee's finding about an officer who, in essence, admitted to retaliating against a community member, even when City Council voted to affirm CRC's proposed "Sustained" finding (see article). We questioned why they would push back so hard over an incident which began with the officer issuing a jaywalking ticket just to get the identity of the complainant. Rather than admit wrongdoing and change behavior, the Bureau forced the case to Council, and lost. Regarding this structure which allows Council to over-ride the Police Commissioner (and the Bureau), the Chief questioned whether "politicians" should be the ones deciding officers' fates. Our response: For over 18 years we have seen politicians failing to hold the police accountable. Now that they are doing so, rather than admit mistakes, people seem to want to change the system again.

We also raised the point that comparing the Gang Enforcement Team* stop data to the "Gang Victimization Rate" is not a logical way to measure whether police are over- stopping the African American community in Portland. Being a victim of a crime doesn't predict inappropriate driving behavior. PCW could concede to the Auditor's support of the Bureau using traffic crash data to indicate the number of African Americans who are actually driving. However, in 2017 that number was 11%, higher than the 6% black population of Portland but lower than the 16.5% rate at which African Americans were stopped by PPB members. We asked for the Bureau to re-institute into those Stop Data reports the reasons for stops including "equipment failure," an indicator of possible pretext stops. We noted the legislature passed HB 2401, which expands required data collection to include stops where no citation is issued or arrest is made, speculating that the original language of the law may be what led the PPB's pedestrian stop data dip from showing about 900 stops per year (about 75 per month) to about 200 per year (less than 20 per month-- also see see article).

* -We are aware the GET's name was changed to the Gun Violence Reduction Unit in either October 2018 or early 2019, but the data in which the police used "Gang Violence Victimization" are from 2016 and 2017 when it was still the GET. At least 75% of 2018's numbers will also refer to the GET.
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September, 2019
Also in PPR #78

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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