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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2012)
Street roots March 2, 2012 H A R D ESTY from page 1 IPR director and anyone else within the city government. Their advice is always about They gave us inadequate staff they gave us how to limit liability or limit the possibility inadequate resources. They really tried to of a lawsuit. But if the IPR director had an tie our hands. They didn’t expect in the independent attorney that could advise her short period of time that I would be able to about the appropriateness of filing charges come up with a couple proposals that would against police officers, holding them make it to the ballot. accountable for some egregious behavior, then she would have J.T.: Was this a lost much more power to opportunity fo r some implement her own real change? investigations, get her The whole IPR system is own legal advice and J.H .: I certainly then be able to flawed. So try in g to fix a agree with the lost flawed system becomes very, recommend what the opportunity for the punishment should w r y fru stra tin g »I would lik e be. public. It is really frustrating to work to see that system go away The problem with as hard as we did the current system is because It was supposed to without the support the independent be tem porary 10 years ago. of the public body review process really I t ys become institutionalized does no review. They that put us together. It supports the need and the assumption is that It review what the to remove this police and the works, and it doesn't« process from the internal investigation political process. committee has One of the already done, or they housekeeping recommend that the measures if passed in May, will provide a Internal Affairs Division actually conduct the structure and timeline for the next charter investigation. So in and of themselves, they effort. It would appoint commissioners for a have the ability to do their own two-year period of time. I continue to investigations, but they don’t. The whole believe what the mayor said to me in a IPR system is flawed. So trying to fix a private meeting: he didn’t care about these flawed system becomes very, very issues, and it is reflected in the lack of staff frustrating. and resources dedicated to this effort. I would like to see that system go away because it was supposed to be temporary 10 J.T.: I t ’s been about two years since City years ago. It was created by then Mayor C o u n cil passed an ordinance m eant to bring Vera Katz who said, let’s try this for a year greater oversight to the police bureau. Looking and see what happens. It’s become back, how well has this ordinance worked? institutionalized and the assumption is that it works, and it doesn’t. It doesn’t work for J.H .: Commissioner Randy Leonard put community members, it doesn’t work as far together a work group that came up with 54 as giving the community certainty that recommendations for changes. The City police are being independently investigated Council implemented four of those changes, and then held accountable for their and I w ould s a y th a t it is n o t w o rk in g yet. b e h a v io r. We don’t have true police reform in the oversight process yet. J.T.: So what specific things should have been in the police-reform ordinance? J.T.: What needs to happen? J.H .: Before the ordinance was passed, a J.H .: Several things need to happen. The IPR director needs to have the ability to have her own attorney. The city attorney represents the police, the City Council, the work group made 54 recommendations and laid out some good ideas, like making sure that the auditor has the ability to show up at crime scenes and actually conduct her own investigation. She has the power to do that, but it actually looks like the City Council lessened her ability to do that in a follow-up ordinance. I don’t think it’s police that should be investigating police. There should be an independent citizen committee investigating police. If those 54 recommendations had been adopted by the City Council, I think that this system would be better because at least it would have those independent pieces in place, and then we would have to wait and see if that worked. J.T.: Are any other cities doing anything worth em ulating? unnecessarily. And what’s frustrating for me, and I think others, is there is training in how to address people with mental health issues. We have mental health workers all over this state where every single day they confront the kind of things Portland police confront, but they don’t kill people. They are able to immobilize people, to calm them down, to de-escalate the situation. So, if we’re training police in de-escalation why is it not working for them most of the time? J.T.: You mentioned the Justice Departm ent’s investigation o f Portland police. What are some things you hope w ill come out o f that? J.H .: Well, I’m hoping that the Justice J.H .: I think San Francisco has a true independent body that actually investigates police. We wouldn’t want to copy them exactly, but they had some good things like their total independence, and their budget is set by statute so it doesn’t get in a political fight if people don’t like the outcomes. They have community members that serve on the body. I think that’s just one of several models around the country that we should be looking at. J.T.: In response to a string o f incidents where mentally fragile individuals died at the hands o f police, the bureau has taken steps to make officers better equipped fo r such encounters. H a s the bureau made any progress in this area? J.H .: Somedays I think that they’re Department investigation will confirm that people of color and people with mental health issues are treated differently by Portland police, and I’m hoping the Justice Department will have very specific steps that Portland police will be required to take to remediate that activity. What’s good about when the Justice Department comes in, is that they recommend very specific actions that they want to see the local police department take. I hope they come out with a laundry list of things for Portland police, so that the community can have a better level of comfort with interacting with the police. J.T.: H a s any progress been made on the issue o f racial profiling? Form er Police C h ie f Rosie Sizer did some work on the issue, but have we seen anything since then? making progress. We read every once in a while how the police were able to come to a situation where someone is suffering mental illness and they’ve been able to de-escalate the situation. But we hear that rarely. Most of the time what we hear is that they had to kill them because they had a little knife or they were aggressive in some manner like the poor guy on the roof of a garage committee was disbanded by Mayor Tom Potter, the replacement was supposed to be the human right commission’s sub committee on police and community relations. I used to go to those meetings. The predominance of that committee were d o w n to w n . c o p s . T h e c o m m u n ity m e m b e r s th a t th e y We’re told that under former Mayor Tom Potter that every law enforcement officer had been trained in how to identify and de-escalate situations with people who are suffering from mental health issues and be able to call a special team if they need it. So sometimes they use that system, and sometimes they don’t, and when they don’t another community member dies selected for the committee had to apply, and the people they selected had the least knowledge of police activities. I would go to those meetings and sit through the whole two hours until the 10 minutes of public comment, and I would be a bit appalled because I would hear police lying to J.H .: No, actually once the racial profiling See H A R D ESTY page Meet Your Local Branch Manager: arentjnst streets a n d build ings, Communities are thrivingplaces where cultures, commerce a n d souh grow stronger together” ro w n - M ary Miona wommunny bank the most ordinar financial transaction can have an extraordinai impact on our local community. mi Mary Edmeaetes Social Impact Banking 503.445.2155 medmeadCsBaibinabank.com , C You Ye going to bank somewhere, not let your banking make a difference I the Places where you live and work? Street Roots is a proud partner with Jesuit Volunteer Corps Vendors are regular contributors to Street Roots content, as columnist, poets and artists. Look for your favorite vendor’s writings in each edition o f the paper. Northwest and Americorps.
