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PORTLAND: Community Policing capital of the U.S.?

Portland is apprarently becoming a national model for successful community policing despite the fact that, in terms of accountability, the five year old Community Policing Intitative has failed to fulfill its promise. Nonetheless, other cities are looking to Portland for guidance.

In late February, Mayor Martin Chavez of Albuquerque, NM, visited Portland and returned home convinced that community policing was right for his comparably sized city. On March 6, the Albuquerque Journal ran stories quoting Mayor Katz, Chief Moose, Roger Morse and others exalting the struggles and successes in implementing community policing. The Journal pointed out that Mayor Chavez was pursuaded by the facts that Portland's crime rate has leveled off over the past 5 years, the public feels safer today than 4 years ago, and the approval rating of the PPB is higher than it has been in years.

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A resident of the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood, whose community policing officers is being removed, said "[it] really worked here. They were arresting people on a first-name basis." -- The Albuquerque Journal, 3/6/94

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The first measure, crime rate, has not, to our knowledge, been linked statistically to the implementation of community policing. And a similar leveling off of crime has occurred nationally over the past 5 years. The other two measures are subjective and could well be the result of one of community policing's biggest accomplishment -- an effective public relations strategy.

The article also points out, but does not analyze, the financial cost of community policing. Albuquerque and Portland, while similar in size, have vast disparities in their police budgets. Portland spends about $90 million annually vs. Albuquerque's $56 million. Mayor Chavez is prepared to make the investment. But wouldn't an additional $30 million a year spent on education, job training, and youth programming have a bigger long term effect on Portland's crime rate and community health than community policing has?

There are other issues that Chavez and others who are jumping onto the community policing bandwagon are not considering--or at least not discussing. Community policing has social costs that may outweigh its benefits.

First, the police's role is extended into the realm of social service provision. Officers are made to play critical societal roles for which they are not trained. Police who apply coercive enforcement strategies in situations that require constructive dialogue and supportive interaction undermine the health of communities.

Secondly, community policing risks deprofessionaliz-ing the police. By encouraging the bureau to build relationships with "the community," we may actually create relationships between the police and select members of the community, e.g. business associations and property owners. This does not facilitate the equal protection of all by the police, nor does it promise an equitable approach to determining enforcement strategies.

Finally, the language of community policing can be used to lessen the degree of real accountability to the public and to undermine the efforts of advocates seeking to establish such measures as civilian review boards. According to Vecinos United, a New Mexico based advocacy group, Chavez sees community policing as an alternative to establishing an effective civilian review process. In Portland, POPSG's work to im-prove civilian review is made more difficult by police and city public relations efforts aimed at creating an image of accountability while the public is, in fact, largely shut out from the process.

As Portland is held up as a national model for community policing and other cities scramble to sign on, we should be clear that community policing has both heavy monetary and social costs.

Second Quarter, 1994
Also in PPR #2

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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