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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2011)
3'lir ^Jortlanh Observer O ctober 19, 2011 This page Sponsored by: V ancouver Fred Meyer What's on your list today?. page 6 L aw &< J ustice Page 3 page 7 M ETRO Police Openings Draw Crowd pages 11 In past, competitive process yielded few minority hires C ari H achmann T he P ortland O bserver by Arts ' V tNTftl INllllAISHtNI pages 12-14 O ctober C alendar H ealth C lassifieds page 15 pages 16-17 page 18 Just 10 m inutes after the P o rt land Police opened online reg is tratio n for 24 new p o sitio n s last w eek, over 300 p ro sp ectiv e o f ficers su b m itted a p p lica tio n s, officially closing the recruitm ent process for the q u arter with only the first 200 ap p lican ts to be c o n sid ere d . “The process is very co m p e titiv e,” said Lt. Vince Elm ore, o f the P ortland Police Bureau for 22 years. “ A p p lican ts are com peting w ith people across cou n try to get ap p licatio n s in q u ick ly .” The P ortland Police has h is to rically been c ritic ize d for the lack o f d iv ersity on the force, in c lu d in g w o m e n , A f r ic a n - A m erican s, L atinos and oth er m inorities. D esp ite b u reau c la im s o f progress, over the past six years there has been little to no significant percentage changes in hiring mi norities, with less than 1 percent increases for women and blacks, and a 1 percent increase for Latinos and minority women. According to 2011 bureau fig ures, of 956 swom officers, 151 or 15.8 percent are women, 35 or 3.7 percent are African-Americans, and 32 or 3.4 percent are Latino. Whites make up the majority of 819 law enforcement workers, or 85.7 per cent of the police force. In Portland, African-Americans compromise 6.4 percent of the popu lation, and Latinos make up 8.8 per PHOTO BY CARI H a CHMANN/T h E PORTLAND OBSERVER Cara Sweeney is a recruitment officer for the Portland Police Bureau. cent, which is nearly double and triple their lack of representation on the police force. Elmore said the bureau is work ing to increase diversity within the organization. Even if the numbers do not reflect change, the police assure us that progress is being made. “The Portland Police should re flect our community,” Elmore said. “The bureau should look like the people we service.” This year, the bureau hired 43 new officers. Three are black, six are Hispanic, one is Asian, and one is Native-American. O fthe43,fiveare women. One month ago, the police hired the first Hispanic female in 10 years, the first African American female in about five years, and of the last four people hired, police say 35 percent have been people of color or women. Historically, police say minori ties and women have not been inter ested in becoming a police officer, but police are doing more to educate and encourage them to have a com petitive advantage. Right now there is only one of ficer o f color working with gangs. In response, police said, “It is not about the color of your skin, but experience.” Recruitment officers said that about 50 percent o f prospective officers are recruited out o f state in continued on page 4 Roosevelt Teacher of the Year O pinion Spanish teacher Elena Garcia-Velasco, who teaches at pages 20*21 Roosevelt high school in North Portland, was named Oregon’s new teacher of the year on Thursday. el O bservador Recognized for her teaching skills and ability to con pages 22*23 nect well with students, Garcia-Velasco is known through out the educational system as someone who transforms the lives of her pupils, especially students from the F o o d page 24 Latino community. Garcia-Velasco was awarded $5,000 and will travel to Washington, D.C. to meet President Obama with the other state winners. Roosevelt High S ch ool’s Elena Garcia-Velasco has been named Oregon teacher o f the Year.
