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Judge Losing Patience in Case of US DOJ v City of Portland as Compliance Officer Prepares to Step Down
Slow Fixes to Community Committee, Body Cams, Offensive Training Cited;
Mental Health Group Shuns Public

The City of Portland was summoned to federal court for the third time this year on November 9, when Judge Michael Simon held a status conference to check progress on the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Settlement Agreement since the July hearing (PPR #87). Dennis Rosenbaum, the Compliance Officer/Community Liaison (COCL), announced his intention to retire

and leave the contracted position in June 2023. The judge strongly hinted that with the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP) still not fully functioning, the city and the police "union" still not in agreement about how to implement body cameras, and the investigation into biased training slides (PPR #86) still not resolved, perhaps the DOJ should bypass the City and ask him to assign a Court Appointed Monitor to the case. Meanwhile, the Behavioral Health Unit Advisory Committee (BHUAC) came to some kind of agreement to review actual uses of force against people with mental illness, as suggested by Portland Copwatch (PCW) last October (PPR #85), but simultaneously voted that they do not have to act on any suggestions made by the public in the future.

City Remains Out of Compliance

Many of the issues cited by the Judge were among those raised in the COCL's Quarter 2 2022 report, released in mid-October. Although the COCL found that three paragraphs moved back into "Substantial Compliance," they also found ones around interviewing witness officers and the functioning of the Citizen Review Committee to be lacking ("Partial Compliance"). Overall, 24 paragraphs are not up to speed, along with all but one of the eight new remedies approved in April to resolve the PPB's lack of compliance during the 2020 protests. One of those, the implementation of body cameras, was supposed to have gone into effect by October. While PCW continues to have reservations about body cams, Judge Simon was quite right to be alarmed that the Portland Police Association and the City had met 13 times but had not yet agreed on policies such as when cops can review footage after they use force.

PCCEP Regrouping, Perhaps with Less Community Engagement

Two PCW members testified virtually at the Status Conference, raising concerns about issues including the way in which the PCCEP had been cutting community members out of its meetings, despite having the words "Community Engagement" in their name. Limitations to participation on Zoom, truncated public input times, and lack of subcommittee meetings left some regular attendees feeling left out. Many PCCEP members also objected to Staff setting their agendas, facilitating their meetings and rewriting their bylaws. The proposed revisions included removing restrictions on the Mayor for removing members of PCCEP and any mention of ensuring the city is following the DOJ Agreement. The Committee was finally able to vote on much of its own leadership during its November meeting, selecting Celeste Carey and Pastor Robin Wisner as co-chairs. However, the positions of alternate co-chair and Secretary were not considered, meaning the staff still has considerable control at least until January, even though subcommittees have already begun meeting again. Despite monthly and sometimes more meetings, PCCEP had been mostly dormant for eight months.

One exception is a forum the PCCEP hosted in early October at which Independent Monitor, LLC, the consultants hired to examine PPB crowd tactics during 2020, listened to the community tell stories about how officers behaved. To their credit, PCCEP staff gracefully thanked participants, even when they hurled profanity and insults at the city and the consultants for making people repeat their trauma with no way to take action. The consultants barely said anything, but also thanked people for participating. Their report is due out in January.

On the other hand, when the PCCEP hosted the COCL to present the Q2 Compliance Report, public input was limited to less than 10 minutes, barely enough time for a mere four people to make comments. PCCEP staff also instructed the Committee not to take input on their subcommittee structure when it came for a second vote, even though the options had changed. For the record, they will still have subcommittees on Racial Equity and Policies / the Settlement Agreement, but no longer have a Youth subcommittee. A subcommittee on Mental Health is not meeting because only one person volunteered for it. The PCCEP has added a subcommittee on Community Engagement.

PCCEP's Racial Equity Subcommittee met in its new form for the first time on November 30. They recalled the work they had been doing on traffic stops before they became involved in discussing the PPB's biased training slides, and selected Byron Vaughn as their chair.

The Settlement Agreement and Policy Subcommittee met on December 7, working with almost an entirely new set of members due to turnover, and selected Ann Campbell (one of the longest seated PCCEP members) and Pastor Wisner to co-chair the subcommittee.

One final note: On August 31, City Council appointed Anthony Barnes, Leslie Martinez and Ashley Schofield to PCCEP, giving them a full contingent of 13 members for the first time in about a year. However, no progress was made on allowing PCCEP to set its quorum to a majority of seated members, which as the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform noted to the court would be a win-win scenario. If the City appoints members fast enough, the sliding-scale quorum would never be needed, but if they do not, PCCEP can continue to function.

BHUAC: Step Forward, Step Back

The exact nature of the BHUAC's future reviews of real-world sample incidents is not clear. Some of the language expressed in court implied they will be looking at data about force used against people in crisis, rather than, as PCW had initially suggested, reviewing deadly force cases to see whether policies or training could be changed to avoid such tragedies in the future. To add insult to injury, Committee then voted to say that input at their quarterly public community meetings does not have to be considered. In doing so, they have undercut the premise that the Agreement is helping the police build community trust. BHUAC's monthly business meetings are still held behind closed doors.

January, 2023
Also in PPR #88

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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