April 19, 2017
The
Page 3
INSIDE
Week in Review
O PINION
This page
Sponsored by:
page 2
pages 6-7
A TriMet photo shows transit police at the Rose Quarter.
TriMet Budget Battle
Advocates
oppose new
transit precinct
by Z achary s enn
t he p ortland o bserver
Advocates for low-income,
transit-dependent
communities
are challenging TriMet’s budget
priorities, arguing that an added
emphasis on policing comes at the
expense of efforts to make public
transportation more affordable to
riders.
OPAL Environmental Justice
Oregon and Bus Riders Unite
oppose the transit agency plans
to spend $11 million for the con-
struction of a new transit police
facility in northeast Portland and
an additional $1.6 million to sup-
port transit police and security op-
erations.
“Bus riders need more accessi-
ble, affordable transportation, not
more racist policing on our bus-
es!” OPAL declared in a commu-
nity alert last week.
“Given the current political cli-
mate, it’s a bad time to be putting
more vulnerable populations un-
der a microscope,” Shawn Fleek,
pages 8-10
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
M ETRO
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
page 11
pages 14
page 15
the community engagement coor-
dinator at OPAL, told the Portland
Observer.
A recent study by the Port-
land State University Criminal
Justice Police Research Institute
found that racial disparities in
fare enforcement were a fact at
TriMet. While no explicit racial
bias practice was found, black
riders, for example, were more
likely to receive harsher penal-
ties for fare evasion, such as ex-
clusions, which bans riders from
the TriMet system for up to 90
days.
Currently, TriMet transit police
are made up of officers from 15 lo-
cal law enforcement agencies. The
officers are supplemented by a
team of civilian fare enforcement
supervisors.
The budget increase for the
fiscal year starting July 1 would
cover the cost of moving one of
TriMet’s four transit precincts,
from inside a parking structure at
Old Town to a larger parking facil-
ity that’s being planned for a new
convention hotel serving the Rose
Quarter and Oregon Convention
Center.
TriMet says that over the long
run, the move will save them mon-
ey, as the agency will be purchas-
ing the space instead of renting
it. Included are plans for two to
three holding cells, and a space
that officers can use to interrogate
detainees.
Roberta Aldstadt, TriMet’s me-
dia relations and communications
manager, says previous attempts
to call the new facility a jail are
misconstrued.
Aldstadt says the current Old
Town precinct already has two
detention rooms. In addition, she
says, additional space for the east-
side location will mark no sub-
stantial shift in transit police pro-
cedures or policies.
The current location poses op-
erational challenges and the added
emphasis on policing is meant to
help both riders and operators feel
safe, she says.
“Anybody that’s riding the sys-
tem will tell you that it’s beneficial
to have police nearby when an in-
cident occurs,” Aldstadt explains.
“There are some issues with the
facility itself, such as water intru-
sion… Also, the parking is ex-
tremely limited.”
Fleek argues that increasing
c ontinued on p age 5
Community Forum on Gun Violence
A free community forum ad-
dressing gun violence as a public
health issue will be held Saturday,
April 22 at the Highland Christian
Center at 7600 N.E. Glisan St.
Sponsored by Oregon Health
Sciences University, Portland
State University and the OHSU-
PSU School of Public Health,
the session will begin at 10 a.m.
and run until 3 p.m. It will offer
families and individuals directly
impacted by violence, as well as
community members interested in
making a difference, a safe venue
to collaborate on ideas to reduce
gun violence and address the so-
cial and society conditions that
contribute to it.
For more information or to reg-
ister, visit ohsu.edu/standtogether.