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City Finds Three Possible Groups to Act as Independent Monitor
for US Dept. of Justice Agreement
Compliance Officer Finds Force, Training Back in Compliance;
Advisory Committee Talks Alternative Responses

There's a lot of flux going on in Portland: in 2025, the entire structure of City Government will change, with at most two current City Council members as part of the new 13-member leadership. The proposed oversight system is expected to be implemented this year, barring a challenge from the police "union" (oversight article). And the now nearly 12-year-old Settlement Agreement between the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the City, narrowed down to about 45 paragraphs from over 90, is going to be overseen by an Independent Court Monitor instead of the Compliance Officer/Community Liaison (COCL--PPR #91). The Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP), the advisory body charged with independently assessing compliance, changed its co-chairs and hosted the COCL to present their Q3 2023 Report. That Report found that after falling out of compliance in 2020, the PPB now has all the paragraphs about Force and Training squared away... even if the community disagrees.

Independent Court Monitor Finalists Appear at Public Event;
Suprisingly, City Doesn't Choose Worst One

In March, the City hosted an event to allow community members to meet the final candidates to be the new Monitor, whose job will absorb the advisory work of the COCL and the decision-making power of the DOJ. While each of the teams had at least one person as local contact, none are based in Portland or Oregon. Each of the three teams had nearly every one of their members (between 8 and 16 each) introduce themselves and talk about their background, chewing up much of the time for community Q&A. Notably, the point person for DLG Consulting, Darryl Neier, was asked about a social media post in which he supported "Blue Lives Matter." He was unapologetic and seemed not to understand how harmful it is that police hijacked the Black Lives Matter slogan to commemorate fallen officers, who chose that profession and were not born into it. He also spoke about how he doesn't care about race and listed "purple" as one color he is ok with. So, although that team was the least popular with community members, that was also true of Dennis Rosenbaum, the only out of town applicant for the COCL job in 2014... and the City hired him anyway. Surprisingly, the City and DOJ chose MPS and Associates, led by Mark Smith from Los Angeles, on April 15; he is expected to be confirmed by Council on May 2.

Compliance Report Reveals More Concerning Info, Fails to Reflect Community Issues

While being conciliatory about the Bureau's use of force because of improved reporting, the COCL continues to urge them to be more clear what is meant by "de-escalation." For training, the only remaining issue had been tracking specialized classes, and that was fixed. The COCL report also as usual included tidbits that the community can't find anywhere else. For instance, the Behavioral Health Unit Advisory Committee (BHUAC), which holds its business meetings behind closed doors, asked the Bureau to include in its policies options to call 988 (suicide hotline) or Portland Street Response (PSR), the teams made up of mental health experts and paramedics from the Fire Bureau which has shown much success. The Police Bureau said no and the BHUAC pushed back, but it's not clear whether the policy was changed.

Five areas in the Accountability section are still not in Compliance. The Report reveals that over a four year period, only 12 force allegations out of 388 were sustained (found out of policy), about 3% vs. 16% of all investigated allegations. One Disparate Treatment allegation was sustained-- the first since 2008-- and one retaliation allegation. However, no details are revealed about the circumstances. In addition, this was the first Report in the nine years since a COCL was hired to include data on lawsuit settlements/judgments, but no recommendations were made based on the police actions that led to the payouts (settlements article).

PCCEP Hears Mixed Messages on Portland Street Response, Changes Leadership

The PCCEP meeting on January 31 included a visit from Interim Fire Chief Ryan Gillespie. Since Portland Street Response has been getting hammered by Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, who told the team to stop handing out tents in 2023 (PPR #89), forced them to accompany police during sweeps despite academic advice, and seems uninterested in expanding their capabilities to be available 24/7, PCCEP was heartened that Gillespie promised to keep PSR going. Days later, Gillespie and Gonzalez said they were looking at cutting $3 million from the program, leading PCCEP members to feel they had been misled. On March 27, they held a town hall about PSR at which Mayoral Aide Stephanie Howard got an earful from the community who want to see the program continue. On April 17, PCCEP unanmiously voted on recommendations to the Mayor to improve and bolster PSR.

In January, the group re-elected Celeste Carey as one co-chair and replaced Pastor Robin Wisner with Ashley Schofield. (Wisner soon resigned anyway to join the Police Review Board community pool-- see IPR article.) Co-chairs for the Community Engagement Subcommittee are Tia Palafox and Odelia Zuckerman, with Byron Vaughn and Kip Silverman heading the Settlement and Policy Subcommittee. Most members attend every meeting and the substance isn't significantly different between Subcommittees and full Committee meetings.

In early March, PCCEP hosted the Bureau's civilian administrator of their Directives program, Ashley Lancaster, who explained the review process and publicly acknowledged that some things Portland Copwatch has suggested have resulted in a better system, even for the cops (printing redline versions showing changes in the new drafts and saying why a policy is being reviewed, for instance). Later in March, they held the first orientation in years delivered by members of the amicus groups to the DOJ Agreement, the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform and the Mental Health Alliance.

More Nothingburgers Served Up by BHUAC

The Behavioral Health Unit Advisory Committee may have asserted themselves at their behind- closed-doors meetings, but their quarterly "community engagement" meetings continue to leave a lot to be desired. In January, they once again ducked answering questions about deadly force recommendations, even after the city had agreed to pay the family of Koben Henriksen to compensate for officers coming upon him in mental health crisis and killing him in 2019 (see shootings article). Also, the Lieutenant from the BHU, Chris Burley (who was supposedly shot by Keaton Otis before officers killed Otis in 2010), pushed back when PCW suggested examining "risks" instead of "threats."

May, 2024
Also in PPR #92

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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