Site Navigation

Training Advisory Council Delays Force Data
Presentations, Bureau Refuses to Change Format
Presentation on "Needs Assessment" Reveals Interesting Info

During the September meeting of the Training Advisory Council, Force Inspector Lt. Mike Roberts responded to a series of questions the community members on TAC had sent. His general response to any item where they asked for a change in the way quarterly Use of Force Reports are generated was to say that the US Department of Justice and the Compliance Officer examining PPB's progress on the 2012 Settlement Agreement would not let them change anything in the current format. But this completely ignores that the Inspector is required by the Agreement to present those Reports to the TAC in order for the Council to make recommendations for improvement. While they are working out a compromise, the August 2022 second quarter Report was not presented either in September or November, delaying discussion at least until January 2024.

While TAC awaits the formal presentation, PCW can report briefly that the Q2 data show Black Portlanders as 27% of those subjected to force in Q2. The Q3 data, released in November just after the TAC meeting, show that number down slightly to 24%... in a City that's got a 6% Black population.

Also at the September meeting, a civilian from the Training Division gave a presentation about how the Bureau puts together its Training "Needs Assessment" to determine what should be included in their annual courses for officers. Starting with a questionable slide of a plane on fire (on the week of the anniversary of 9/11), the point was to see what's urgently needed to get the Bureau on track. Limitations come because there are numerous state requirements, many for firearms training (no wonder the PPB is so trigger happy). Training Captain Franz Schoening noted the trainings aren't ideal because "there's no one shooting at you." The TAC's recommendations are part of what is considered, but there was no mention of other community input as suggested in the DOJ Agreement.

There was a comment at the beginning of the September meeting about "media attention" to the fact that the PPB paid $35,000 to the Force Science Institute to train some of their instructors. As noted in past issues of the PPR (#s 64 & 66), this group should be called the "Junk Science Institute" as they come up with unprovable reasons that officers "had to" shoot people or why they should be allowed more than 48 hours before being interviewed after such events. Oregonlive reported on August 16 that Ashlee Albies, attorney for the AMA Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, brought up in federal court that the Force Science Institute had been barred from presenting testimony at a trial in California.

As noted in PPR #90, Roberts is the sixth Force Inspector in just over three years, which may be partly why progress seems to spin like those hourglasses/rainbow circles when your computer is trying to think. He stated that Use of Deadly Force is not part of his office's purview, which might be strictly true about individual incidents, but the quarterly and annual Force reports from the inspector do include when shootings occur.

TAC Chair Nathan Castle set aside most of the November meeting for work by the task groups on Advanced Academy, Restorative Justice, Officer-Community Relations, Continuous Quality Improvement, Data Presentation (regarding the Force reports) and Crowd Management. Each group was waiting for some information or person, except the Restorative Justice group, which decided to disband. The meeting was over in about 35 minutes.

January, 2024
Also in PPR #91

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