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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 2016)
February 10, 2016 The INSIDE Week in Review S PORTS Page 3 Black History Month This page Sponsored by: page 2 L OCAL N EWS page 7 page 8-9 H EALTH page 11 M ETRO Attorney General Loretta Lynch will put Portland’s community policing strategies in focus during an upcoming visit. Community Policing Tour Attorney General Lynch plans Portland visit (AP) - Attorney General Loret- ta Lynch plans to visit six cities, including Portland, in the coming months to highlight police depart- ments she sees as role models for law enforcement. The locations were chosen be- cause they embody a particular trait of successful policing, such as effective use of data, strong com- munity relationships or a commit- ment to oficer safety, Lynch said Monday. The irst visit is planned for Thursday and Friday to Mi- ami-Dade County in Florida, where Lynch is scheduled to rec- ognize the Doral police depart- ment for its community policing strategies. She’ll also host a youth town hall and a community polic- ing discussion in Miami, among Arts & pages 12-14 ENTERTAINMENT C LASSIFIEDS C ALENDAR pages 18-19 O PINION page 16 page 17 other events. The date of the Portland vis- it has not yet been inalized, but Lynch is scheduled to highlight the city’s community policing ef- forts and crime reduction during her stop here. “It really is our hope to high- light the areas where police and community members are sitting down together and iguring out, ‘How do we all make this work?’” she said. The visits represent the second phase of a community policing tour that Lynch, a former federal prosecutor in New York, began last year after being sworn in as the nation’s top law enforcement oficial. In that irst phase, she visit- ed cities where police forces are working to overcome troubled relationships with their commu- nities. Now, the focus turns to depart- ments that are seen as successful in implementing “pillars” of po- licing identiied in a White House report last May. Each city on the tour represents a different pillar, which include building commu- nity trust, community policing, crime reduction and oficer train- ing and education, Lynch said. The initiative is part of a nation- al discussion on police use of force and effective law enforcement tac- tics, a topic that’s taken on new ur- gency amid a series of high-proile police shootings of unarmed young black men in places including Fer- guson, Mo.; Cleveland; and North Charleston, S.C. Embracing Jeff’s Gains and Future Self Enhancement, Inc., the social services organization and public charter school serving Portland’s black community, will host a commu- nity-wide celebration honoring Jefferson High School for recently achieving an 80 percent grad- uation rate. The celebration in the SEI auditorium, 3920 N. Kerby Ave., on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m., will feature a brief program to highlight the pivotal role a partnership between SEI, Jefferson High School, and the Cascade Campus of Portland Community College has had on lifting Jefferson’s graduation rate in ive years, from 55 percent to 80 percent. Around 200 people including past alumni, current students and families, and members of the commu- nity at large are expected to attend. Since Jefferson is the only predominantly Afri- can-American high school in the state, there will also be some discussion on the future of the school and how Portland’s black community can rally around it to make sure the school stays accessible to African-American students. Speakers will include Tony Hopson, SEI presi- dent and chief executive oficer; Margaret Calvert, Jefferson High School principal; and other staff from SEI, Jefferson and PCC.
