[Portland Copwatch - a project of Peace and Justice Works]

  

Site Navigation

Home
About us
People's Police Report
Shootings & deaths
Cool links
Other Information
Contact info
Donate
 

  

Letter from Hooper Detox

In response to Douglas Squirrel's article "Hooper Detox Redux" (PPR #3), Richard Harris, Director of Housing and Chemical Dependency Services at Portland's Central City Concern and former director of Hooper, wrote a letter. For space reasons, we cannot print the whole letter, but these are excerpts:

"The sobering program [at Hooper] is like a hospital emergency room for people who are drunk. Hooper staff are given the reponsibility for safety of intoxicated or incapacitated individuals found in public places. Staff must be prepared to deal with injuries, medical problems, psychiatric problems, and angry and emotional people who are under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. ... In fact last year Hooper had over 15,000 admissions to the sobering progam. This is a large number of people who have been taken from harms [sic] way and provided with the Opportunity to do something about their alcohol and other drug abuse problems.

"Your article implies that we have a significant problem with police bringing in people who are not intoxicated. This is not true. Less than one percent of those people brought to the sobering program were not eligible because they were not sufficiently intoxicated to be admitted.

"Your article further implied that Hooper Center representatives had only recently been able to resolve problems with Portland police officials. This is also not true. Hooper center has for many years been working with the Portland Police Bureau regarding the process of admission, police conduct, and procedures at the sobering program. What I hoped to communicate to you was that Chief Moose and the Police Bureau have been particularly responsive to the needs of intoxicated people and Hooper Center."

(A quick note on people brought in not qualified for detox: POPSG figures the number to be greater than 1%, but even at the rate of 15,000 people a year [Harris' figure], that means that an "insufficiently intoxicated" person is brought in once every two and a half days.)

  [People's Police Report]

First Trimester, 1995
Also in PPR #5

• About Police Killed While on Duty
• Critical Mass
• Letter from Hooper Detox
• Correction Regarding PIIAC
• Mental Health Issues
• Nathan Thomas Report
• Public Policy/Legislation Watch
  • PPB as a Special Interest
  • Free Police Reports
  • "Safety Zone"
  • Multnomah Sheriff's Candidates
      and Accountability
  • Turning Asset Forfeiture Over to the People
• Rapping Back #5
  

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 #02 Table of Contents
Back to Portland Copwatch home page
Peace and Justice Works home page
Back to top