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Quick Flashes PPR #94

A large number of people who ran for City Council in November-- including some who support police accountability-- bought into the myth perpetuated by Chief Bob Day's October announcement that the Portland Police need more money to hire 150 additional officers. One argument goes that Portland has a larger population and fewer officers per community member than it did 20 years ago when compared to other cities our size. What these "see a nail and let's get a hammer" folks don't realize is that the Bureau is down by more than 150 officers from its current approved staffing level, so such an expansion would probably just lead to 300 empty seats. The Bureau's own staffing web page shows that there are perpetually somewhere around 80 vacant positions plus another 90 or so officers who are still in training and can't patrol the streets yet. With 881 authorized positions, they could use their current money to pay for 20% more officers. As Portland Copwatch has pointed out repeatedly, if you believe that more police will solve some of Portland's crime problems, why not wait until all those officers are hired and out in the field before taking more money away from other much-needed city programs?

One exception to hopping on this bandwagon is KATU-2TV reporter Wright Gazaway. After Day's declaration (which supports the Portland Police Association and the people they endorsed for Mayor and City Council-- see "Rapping Back"), Gazaway reposted his 2021 news story quoting experts saying that population size and the number of officers are not the way to gauge how big a police department should be. He followed up with a story on October 28 revealing that a study commissioned in 2021 to figure out how many cops Portland needs-- especially with its unarmed alternatives such as Portland Street Response and the Public Safety Support Specialists-- was never completed. Deputy City Administrator for Public Safety Mike Myers said they put aside that study and never got back to it.

Even before the Chief's plan was announced, houseless community newspaper Street Roots published a three part series showing that the number of officers on the street is not directly connected to crime rates (August 21).

See the PPB's staffing reports at portland.gov/police/open-data/ppb-staffing-report.
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Portland Police Chaplain Misconduct and Extremism

On March 9, 2024, Portland Police Chaplain Clyde Lewis, a 20-year PPB veteran, shared one of his chaplain experiences while speaking at a conference in Florida. Lewis said he was patrolling with his "partner" on 82nd Avenue in Portland when the officer stopped to talk to a man wearing only one shoe, but the man ran across the street into a nearby restaurant. Lewis started to exit the vehicle but the officer told him to stay in the car. The officer pursued the man into the restaurant and while the officer was still inside, the suspect exited the restaurant. Lewis got out of the car, pointed his finger at the man and yelled, "Freeze! Do not move! Right now put your hands up!" The man stopped, put his hands up, and yelled "Do not shoot! Do not shoot!" The crowd laughed at Lewis's retelling. The "humor" was a police chaplain impersonating a cop and pretending to have a gun pointed at someone who thought they were about to get shot if they didn't comply (Youtube video, March 2024).

For the last 9 years (since 2015), Lewis has been on the governing board of the ultraconservative Tetelestai Ministries (Propublica, December 2024) and has taken an active leadership role in their ministries including "Her Voice Movement" and "Don't Mess With Our Kids."

In the last year, Clyde Lewis has spoken at various associated conferences and traveled to Washington, DC multiple times to prepare for the October 12, 2024 "A Million Women" rally. There, Christian Dominionists and Christian Supremacists participated in a call to overthrow ancient gods and repent on behalf of the nation for tolerating LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights, and religions other than Christianity. They "decreed" that the USA belongs to their God alone and claimed their right to take "dominion" and control of the nation. Violent rhetoric and symbolism were used throughout the rally (Rolling Stone, October 18). It's not clear how Lewis' views are reflected when he counsels Portland officers, but it is quite disturbing.
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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.

People's Police Report #94 Table of Contents
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