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2023 Annual Report from "Independent" Police Review
Continues Trend of Short, Uninformative Documents

The "Independent" Police Review (IPR), the office which processes complaints about police misconduct, is supposed to put out its Annual Report by May of each year. Just like in 2022 (PPR #91), their 2023 Report was released in August. At 16 pages long, the new Report is one page longer, but it replaces summaries of sample complaints with a long glossary of terms. Even in the post-George Floyd era, IPR continues to leave out information on the demographics of who filed complaints. Previous years' Reports listed how many officers received multiple complaints, the time it took to complete intake investigations, trends in allegation types, and most significantly, deadly force cases. All of these data are now gone. And once again, the volunteer community members who serve under IPR's umbrella on the Citizen Review Committee (CRC) do not even merit a mention in the Report.

IPR participates in Police Review Boards, which process administrative reviews of serious incidents like shootings. The IPR Director also presents monthly reports to the CRC listing the open cases of deadly force. Yet the Annual Report does not contain even cumulative data on the number of shootings or the number of hearings about them.

Here are some key data points that can be extracted from the Report:

--In 2023, IPR received 176 community complaints, still down from roughly 400 a year prior to 2020, but almost exactly the same as the 174 from 2022.

--In the section reviewing the outcomes of the 422 allegations making up those 176 complaints, IPR says 14%, or 23, were "Sustained" (found out of policy). But 23 is only 5% of 422. Fourteen percent of 422 is 59. Presumably, they are using the percentage of investigated allegations (which would be 23 of roughly 164). Last year, seven Sustained findings represented just 2% of incoming allegations, so that figure is up (to 5%), though still lower than what's being touted.

--For police who complained about other officers (in 76 complaints, not counting five that were dismissed), 39 of 78 allegations, or 50%, were Sustained. That is 10 times the rate at which community complaints are Sustained.

--The Report helpfully notes that of the 23 Sustained community allegations, four were for Force, while the majority were for Procedure (10) or Conduct (9).

--The number of officers receiving discipline went back up, though Portland Copwatch has conducted this analysis as the IPR did not: In 2021, 34 officers were subjected to discipline, in 2022 that number was down to just 15, while in 2023 it was 21. Only three received time off without pay (one for one week and two for two days each), while the majority received Letters of Reprimand (6) or Command Counseling (12).

--Though for several years now IPR has referred to cases that are dismissed as being "administratively closed," the reality is that someone took the time to file a complaint and there was not a full investigation or other resolution. So, in short, they were dismissed. The rate of dismissed cases was once between 54-60% (2016-2018), but has been lower more or less since then. The new report indicates that 69 of the 176 complaints in 2023 were "closed," which is 39%.

--It's not explicit, but it appears that not a single community member who filed a complaint chose to participate in mediation (one on one discussions with police in place of a formal investigation) in 2023.

IPR has expressed concern that the staff doesn't know how long their jobs will last while the new oversight system (voted on in 2020) is put into effect (see article). But until that system is in place, IPR is the only non-police-led agency the City has in place to review misconduct complaints. There needs to be more transparency and communication with the public, which used to include presentations of the Reports at City Council. This Report was badly presented at a CRC meeting (see article), without having been listed on the agenda. The 2023 Report falls far beneath the standards of even the less- than-fully independent oversight system Portland has had since 2001.

January, 2025
Also in PPR #94

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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