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Training Advisory Council Gets New Members,
Division Captain, and a Visit from the Chief

The Chief's presentation was pretty much the same as elsewhere. What stood out this time was his claim that the police and the community should see each other as one. This claim is hard to swallow when one revisits the 2021 Portland Mercury article which showed that only 18% of PPB officers actually live in Portland. Day also appears to have de-prioritized accountability (and transparency) as one of his goals for the Bureau, in favor of making the Bureau a self-improving organization. To his credit, Day brought up the shooting of Richard Perez which had taken place shortly before the meeting... though he did not say Perez' name.

One TAC member stated at two different meetings that the purpose of the new Body Worn Camera program is to exonerate officers suspected of misconduct. Really? They were sold to the public as an accountability tool, implying the exact opposite-- that they are to prove when officers violate policy. Portland Copwatch's Dan Handelman sent a follow up email to the group noting that a Washington State University professor was interviewed in the Columbian (June 22), noting that body cameras do not tell the whole story.

In July, Force Inspector Lt. Mike Roberts presented the force data, mumbling about the one use of deadly force in Q1, but not mentioning the deceased person's name, Matthew Holland. Roberts once again skipped over the demographic data. In Q1, the Bureau matched its top rate wherein 30% of people on whom they used force were Black-- in a City with a 6% Black population. The "custody rate," that is, how often people are being cited, arrested or taken to a psychiatric facility, is just 21% Black. No mention, and no questions from the TAC.

The Bureau showed the TAC their video of officers taking what appeared to be a houseless woman into custody in full view of the community and multiple officers' body cams (during the pilot project that took place from August to October 2023). As noted elsewhere in this issue, the Bureau made an argument that ceasing to make full force reports on low level uses of force like resistance against being handcuffed in this case will free up lots of officers' time. The Bureau constantly has about 100 vacancies these days and another 100 officers who haven't completed their training. The TAC is in a perfect position to tell the Bureau to finish the training and get new cops out on the streets before changing force reporting. They also did not question the long time gap in the video that was just narrated as a block of seven hours where all the officers supposedly spent time reporting.

Incidentally, part of the presentation on the new "de minimis" force rules was done by Deputy Chief Chris Gjovik, one of the former Training Captains, who was quietly promoted to replace retiring Deputy Chief Mike Frome in June.

Portland Copwatch is often the only community group in attendance, and often makes the only community comments at TAC meetings, which usually take place on the second Wednesdays of odd numbered months.

For more info go to <portland.gov/police/tac>.

September, 2024
Also in PPR #93

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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