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Portland Observer
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‘City of Roses’
Volume XLVI
Number 1
Prison where we
least expect it
New Year’s
Resolutions
Jail time merges
with daily life in
new documentary
Staying motivated
key to losing
weight
See Metro, page 9
See story, page 5
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • January 4, 2017
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Portland Police office Joana Ortiz, assigned to patrol in the Police Bureau’s North Precinct, participates in a new Portland Police Bureau police recruitment video to help
attract more minority and women police officers to the bureau’s ranks.
Holistic
Approach
Police Bureau’s new efforts to recruit minority officers
by Z aChary S enn
t he P ortland o bServer
The Portland Police Bureau has launched a new police
officer recruitment initiative to increase the force’s di-
versity and boost officer retention. The goal is to remove
barriers from its hiring process in order to widen the pool
of potential applicants. A newly-produced video accom-
panies the effort, which features a diverse group of ac-
tive-duty Portland Police officers describing why they find
their jobs rewarding.
“What we’re really trying to do is increase the appeal
of law enforcement and the Portland Police Bureau to a
diverse community,” explains police Sgt. Peter Simpson,
the Bureau’s public information officer.
Like so many police departments around the country,
the ranks of the Portland’s police officers have been most-
ly white and male; failing to look like the city it serves.
“A lot of agencies struggle to attract candidates of di-
verse backgrounds,” Simpson said, citing one major factor
as having to do with the historical distrust of law enforce-
ment in certain communities.
The new recruitment effort attempts to appeal to appli-
cants of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds but also to
women and members of the LGBTQ community. Portland
expects to fill over 70 vacant police positions in the im-
mediate future and prepare for hundreds of police officers
who will retire in the next few years.
Officer Joana Ortiz, who is assigned to patrol in the
North Precinct, appears in the latest recruitment video.
She faces the camera to describe how many people stop
her and remark that she is the first Hispanic woman they
have ever seen on the force. “I really didn’t expect to be a
police officer. I actually didn’t like police officers grow-
C ontinued on P age 14