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Training Advisory Council Prompts Bureau to Promise Niiya's presentation was typically clinical, though he did call attention to an increase in "takedowns" performed by officers in fall 2019, saying those actions are getting more scrutiny as a result. He did not, however, highlight that 31% of the people subjected to force were African American and 47% were listed as "transient" (ie most likely houseless). Chair Campbell was the first to ask a question about the over-representation of African Americans as recipients of force. Niiya said the Bureau's equity office could look at that but he knows officers "bend over backward to de-escalate." Though Niiya said the PPB would scrutinize data spikes such as an uptick in the use of Tasers, he did not explain why the recent quarter had 31 Taser uses versus 18 in the previous three months. The Auditor's presentation was similar to the one given at PCCEP in November (also PPR #79). There was a discussion about officers working 13,000+ hours at private events while saying they are stretched too thin to attend to calls for service. The Bureau showed a video by the group Youth Educating Police which was used at their in-service training to expose officers to concerns of young people. In it, officers said they were aware they should find ways to avoid funneling youth into the criminal justice system, so while it mostly tilted toward "cops are people too" rhetoric, there was at least some progress being shown. At the January meeting, it was announced that Captain Craig Dobson, formerly the Bureau's Force Inspector, had been promoted to replace Erica Hurley at Training (Hurley is now at the Transit Division). In March, the TAC included 10 new members, and plans to appoint four to five more in the coming months, bringing the Council up to 25 members. There appeared to be at least one black member, a rarity since the early days of TAC in 2012. The discussion about what to study in future months had been intended as a work session where the group would break into clusters. Fortunately for the few members of the public in attendance, the bulk of the information was shared with the full Council with only a short break-out at the end. Key areas will be leadership training, education for officers, and the training for Public Safety Support Specialists (PSSSs). Lt. Greg Stewart noted that the first batch of 12 PSSSs were trained quickly with most of the training lifted from another city. Until Portland Copwatch raised the concern during public comment, nobody seemed concerned whether the PSS Specialists (officers with no arrest powers and only pepper spray as weapons) would be trained in de-escalation and mental health curricula established by the US Department of Justice Settlement Agreement to lower the force used by the PPB, nor whether the PSSSs will be subject to the same complaint system as regular officers. The TAC usually meets once every two months, the next meeting might be May 13. Check <portlandoregon.gov/police/61449> for information. |
May, 2020
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
#80 Table of Contents
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to tell TAC they would not put demographic data in quarterly
Force reports (PPR #79). Of
course, this doesn't stop the Bureau from rejecting the community body's suggestions, nor does it
provide them the ability to override the Chief's decisions. Also in January, Lt. Jeff Niiya presented
the third quarter 2019 force data, and a representative of the Auditor's office summarized their
analysis of Bureau overtime use. New in 2020 were changes in the Training Division's leadership
and the membership of TAC. At their March meeting, the TAC discussed what areas to examine in
the coming months.