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City Reacts to Use of Force Report
who have a gun pointed at them
by a police officer are also black,
according to the report.
The report also concluded
that while police are using force
by J ake T homas
on fewer mentally ill suspects
T he P ortland O bserver
overall, their use of Tasers on
A city auditor report on the this population has risen, with
use o f force by police has 26.4 percent more reports. It
drawn mixed reactions from city notes that people with mental
officials.
illness tend to be
The report ana­
arm ed m ore fre ­
lyzes data from 2007
quently, and more
through 2(X)8 to pro­
combative.
vide a snapshot of
It also show ed
police use of force in
disparities in where
Portland, revealing
police use force.
tre n d s th a t have
Twenty nine per­
garnered praise as
cent of all use of
wells as alarm.
force reports were
Com plaints con­
g e n e ra te d in the
cerning the use of Rosie Sizer
po lice b u re a u ’s
force by police are
East Precinct, while only 10 per­
down substantially, from 118 in cent came from North Precinct.
2004 to 50 in 2008. The report
Forty one percent of all use
also showed that Portland po­ of force reports were generated
lice use force in less than one byjust 15 percent of all officers
percent of all calls for service who submitted more than five
and less than five percent of use of force reports.
arrests.
Police Chief Rosie Sizer re­
However, the report also re­ ceived a sanguine reception
vealed more disturbing trends. when presenting the report to
It revealed that 29 percent of Portland’s Citizen Review Com­
people who are the receiving mittee, a nine-member panel
end of force from a police of­ that helps improve police ac­
ficer are A frican A m erican. countability. The committee was
Thirty four percent of people so pleased with the drop in po­
Trends draw
praise, alarm
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Nicole Sykes and her son, Maral, keeping it cool at
Peninsula Park in north Portland.
lice use of force that there was
talking of breaking out cham­
pagne g la sse s, and barely
touched on the more negative
findings in the report.
“I think this whole effort has
been extraordinarily good for
the Police Bureau, and it’s been
extraordinarily good for our re­
lationship with our community,”
said Sizer, who attributed the
drop in use of force to the imple­
mentation of recommendations
made by a task force in 2007 that
called for better training for of­
ficers.
The only criticism came from
Dan H andelman o f Portland
Copwatch who pointed out that
the bureau had no new recom­
mendations to further improve
the Police Bureau’s use of force
numbers. He also complained
that the figures don’t count the
pointing of a Taser weapon to­
ward a suspect as a police use
of force.
Sizer also presented the re­
port to City Council last week.
Mayor Sam Adams raised the
issue of the African Americans
being disproportionately on the
receiving end of force by po­
lice, which Sizer said the bureau
would continue to look into,
w hich w as re in fo rc e d by
Michael Bingham, the chair of
the Citizen Review Committee.
“This is a continuing pro­
cess,” noted Bingham.
Commissioner Amanda Fritz
questioned Sizer on how the
report notes that one of the driv­
ing reasons why the police use
of force has dropped 35 percent
is because of change in report­
ing requirements. Officers are
only required to make a report
when the use of force causes
injury.
“You can presume there is
some level of control and some
level of pain compliance in this
move to get someone into hand­
cuffs,” said Fritz, who also
asked why force is used so dis­
proportionately in East Pre­
cinct.
Sizer said that the report still
shows that police use of force
is down, but couldn’t explain
the disparity in use of force be­
tween precincts, speculating
that it might because of prob­
lems in the area or the “culture
of the precinct.”
“There are neighborhoods
that I think are feeling under
siege,” she said.
Also present was recently-
elected City Auditor LaVonne
Griffin-Valade, who said that her
office was looking into police
use of Tasers.
Hot! Hot! Hot! Justice Anchored in Native Culture
continued ¿ ^ f r o m Front
son, Hayden, to the park to
try and cool off.
“It was really tempting to
stay in the house,” she said.
H er friend N icole Sykes
brought her 19-m onth-old
son, Maral, to the park as well.
Both of them sip Gatorade
and water while their children
run through the fountain.
High temperatures in Port­
land were expected to lower
into the 90s by the end of the
week with temperatures cool­
ing to the mid 80s by the week­
end.
with a pink visor before scur­
rying into the spray of the
fountain.
Sara Ryan found herself in
the unenviable position of
not having air conditioning.
She tried going into the moun­
tains for a hike in hopes of
cooling down. She eventually
made her way to the park with
her son, Lochlan, to cool of
by the fountain.
Chistina Thompson has air-
conditioning at hom e, but
wanted to get outdoors, and
brought her 20-m onth-old at *
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tf
M & W U If
a
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My ma Taylor began drinking
ing to work with teenagers one
heavily after losing her husband
day.
In prison Red Lodge pro­ nearly a decade ago. Family
like a light going out.”
Before going to prison. Big vides a num ber of services to members and friends came out
Back said she was heavily into N a tiv e A m e ric a n w om en. of the woodwork to exploit her
street life and substance abuse. Once a year they have a sa­ vulnerable situation, leaving
After going to Coffee Creek and cred foods feast where huck­ her with little resources. Her low
using Red Lodge Transition leberries, salmon, and venison point came when she badly in­
Services she anchored herself is served. Women sing tradi­ jured someone while driving
in her culture, which was instru­ tional songs and use native drunk, which landed her at Cof­
mental in getting her life back methods of conflict resolution fee Creek.
She felt lost and alone. But
during sweat lodges and talk­
on track.
Red
Lodge helped her connect
“I just got lost,” she said. “It ing circles. They also perform
to
her
roots, and gave her the
a “sm udging” ritual, where a
brought me back to myself.”
social
support
to transition back
Now, thanks to Red Lodge, train ed person uses sm oke
to
normal
life.
she’s gotten her 19-year-old and ash to purify participants.
“It really helped me do the
For many women, reestab­
daughter back in her custody
healing
I needed to do,” she
lishing
this
cultural
connection
and is starting school at Mt.
said.
“I
would
have come out
is
vital
in
their
recovery.
Hood Community College, hop­
continued ^ ^ f r o m Front
angry.”
Red Lodge has plans to ex­
pand. The organization has
gotten a number of grants, and
has regular art shows across
the state featuring the work of
current and former inmates the
sales of which go into its cof­
fers.
Eventually Red Lodge wants
to set up an agricultural coop­
erative in rural C lackam as
County where inmates can de­
velop job skills. The details are
still being hashed out, but it will
likely have something to do with
traditional native medicines
with sustainability element at­
tached to it.
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