Portland observer., October 26, 2016, Page Page 7, Image 7

October 26, 2016
Page 7
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O PINION
Contract with Police Reflects a Narrow Focus
Locks us in to same
old pretend reform
J o a nn h ardesty
I recently wrote
to the Portland City
Council members on
behalf of the mem-
bers of the NAACP
Portland
Chapter
1120 to request that
they reject the new
police bureau contract negotiated behind
closed doors at the direction of Mayor
Hales. Where is the fire? We have a May-
or-elect who will take office in January,
six months before the current contract
expires. This contract is another smack
in the face of community members who
expected to have an opportunity to weigh
in on this contract and who expect the
contact to reflect a new vision of policing.
This contract is woefully inadequate and
will lock us in for another six years of the
same old same old pretend reform pack-
age we got under the last contract talks.
Why is this contract so bad? It reflects
the narrow focus on money rather than vi-
sion and does not reflect the will and/or
voice of the community. There are many
things wrong with this contract.
1. The contract allows retired officers
to be hired back for six years at the top
of their paygrade—classic double-dipping
at the expense of the taxpayer. Moreover,
there are no criteria to determine if the of-
ficer is the type of officer we want to re-
tain on the force. With no criteria we will
create a revolving door of police officers
retiring to get the best retirement plan and
then rejoining the force at their top pay
scale whether or not they have proven ex-
perience in de-escalation, building posi-
tive community relations.
2. The contract ensures that the most
expensive police officers are assigned to
overtime first rather than a mid-level em-
ployee or rather than the right level officer
needed based on the situation. This com-
ponent ensures that the most highly paid
police officers have the right to as much
overtime as they want as compared to
younger officers who the overtime might
make a difference in whether or not they
stay with the Portland Police Bureau. Both
the taxpayer and the community suffer.
3. It appears that the mayor negotiated
body-cam agreements with the union but
reneged on the promise to the public that
they would have an opportunity to weigh-
in on body-cam rules and regulations. In-
stead the mayor went behind closed doors
with the police union and developed a
policy that is just the opposite of an ac-
countability policy. As proposed, police
would review video prior to writing their
written reports which basically extends
the 48-hours to unspecified period of time
for police to write a report after an inci-
dent with the exception of deadly force.
Why would police need to see video be-
fore writing a report unless they need to
make their report match what’s on the
by
video tape (and possibly omit actions that
weren’t caught on camera? Since the pub-
lic has no access to the video this is totally
unacceptable.
4. Both the mayor and then-Police
Chief (O’Dea) promised the public that
we would have the opportunity to a part of
the process of developing body-cam regu-
lations that would provide clear guidelines
for how this technology would be used.
Having attended two community meet-
ings on this, I can testify that the Mayor
has misrepresented public input. There
were two community meetings more than
a year ago with no other public meetings
scheduled. The mayor put together an in-
ternal workgroup but the community had
no access to those meetings.
5. I made several requests to both the
mayor’s office and the chief’s office to en-
gage the public in this necessary conver-
sation before we invest resources or ne-
gotiate a policy deal written for and with
the police union. How can the public have
any confidence in a tool that is supposed
to create transparency yet is developed
and agreed to behind closed doors? The
expensive tool seems to only be beneficial
to police and does nothing to contribute to
transparency and accountability that is the
expectation of the public in this new era
of policing in America.
6. Mayor-Elect Wheeler is the person
we will hold accountable for this contract;
C ontinued on p age 15