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Updates People's Police Report #78 September 2019

Copcam Program Still On Hold

During the debates over the City's budget in May, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty suggested cutting the budget for the Police Bureau's body camera program, noting that storage and retrieval of footage will escalate costs if the City adopts the cameras after a planned test-run. The budget for the pilot program was previously approved and the Bureau signaled its intention to go ahead with a test once the policy on copcams was adopted. Earlier this year, Portland Copwatch (PCW) reminded the City that Council required a stakeholder committee to review that policy before it goes into effect (PPR #70). Assistant Chief Chris Davis invited PCW to be part of that group, initially to have its first meeting in May. However, the Bureau decided to give first crack at the policy to the Portland Police Association (PPA), bringing into question whether the stakeholder group will have any influence at all in the discussion. As of PPR deadline, no meeting has been set and no policy has been published. At the time the Council voted on the PPA's contract in 2016, the draft policy would have allowed officers to review body camera footage before writing their reports.

Writing about the budget debate, the Portland Mercury reported George Mason University found cities which adopt body cameras show "no major change in officers' decisions to use force against civilians, no increase in prosecutions of officers who use undue force, and no increase in trust between citizens and officers" (June 20).
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School Police Still Funded by City

Commissioners Hardesty and Eudaly expressed concern the City budget included money for School Resource Officers (SROs) after Portland Public Schools rescinded its promise to pay for SROs from its limited coffers (PPR #77). However, what was included in the City budget was a continuation of the existing level of SROs, not an expansion. New school board members were elected in May, and the student activists who helped force the reconsideration are out for the summer; PCW is hoping any developments about this topic will not be negotiated before school starts again in September. An Oregonian article about the City funding the officers quotes Jefferson High School senior Sophia Lucas, who is Latinx and Native American, saying she "feels unsafe when she sees armed police officers patrolling her school" (May 24).
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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.

People's Police Report #78 Table of Contents
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