February 22, 2023
INSIDE L ocaL N ews
Page 3
Reconsidering Police
Qualifications
Oregon joins
debate over
police education
requirements
s ports
page 5
M etro
o piNioN
c Lassified /B ids
page 6
page 9
pages 10
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Amid a renewed nationwide
focus on police qualifications fol-
lowing the fatal beating of Tyre
Nichols, an Oregon lawmaker
has introduced a bill that would
require law enforcement officers
to complete at least two years of
higher education.
Police departments have wres-
tled for years with officer educa-
tion requirements. Many say that
raising them would worsen cur-
rent staffing shortages and make it
harder to recruit candidates from
diverse backgrounds. But reform
advocates say that continuing ed-
ucation past high school can equip
officers with critical life skills that
could help improve their interac-
tions with the public.
“You’re learning, you’re read-
ing about other communities,
you’re reading about other peo-
ple, you’re getting a sense of re-
spect for people who you do not
know, communities that you do
not know,” said Democratic Ore-
gon state Sen. Lew Frederick, the
bill’s chief sponsor.
A Portland Police officer watches protesters rallying at the Mark O.
Hatfield United States Courthouse on Sept. 26, 2020, in Portland,
Ore. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner)
The bill, which was introduced
last month, would push back
against the recent trend of low-
ering police hiring standards by
requiring two years of higher ed-
ucation for departments with less
than 50 officers and a bachelor’s
degree for departments with more
than 50. It would apply to police,
corrections, parole, probation and
reserve officers. The bill would set
police education requirements in
state law. Generally, these require-
ments are determined by munici-
palities or individual departments.
The Portland Police Bureau in
Oregon is among the agencies that
have struggled to recruit. The city
was gripped by months-long pro-
tests in 2020 following the racial
justice demonstrations sparked by
Floyd’s death, and has seen record
numbers of homicides the past
two years.
The police bureau only requires
a high school or GED diploma.
But that minimum requirement, it
says, doesn’t necessarily result in
hiring candidates with less educa-
tion. While testifying against the
Oregon bill on Tuesday, PPB Capt.
Greg Pashley said that about 70%
of the bureau’s sworn employees
have a bachelor’s degree or higher,
and that 46% of applicants have a
two-year degree or higher. Another
hearing for the Oregon bill has yet
to be scheduled.
Is Covid Over?
Third anniversary
of Oregon’s first
case approaching
We are approaching the
third anniversary of the first
COVID-19 diagnosis in Oregon
on February 28, and the federal
government recently announced
its plan to end the COVID-19
public health emergency on
May 11.
Dr. Katie Sharff, Chief of In-
fectious Disease for Kaiser Per-
manente Northwest, is available
for interviews to talk about her
diagnosis of the first patient in
Oregon; how far we have come
and what we’ve accomplished
as a community and health care
system; advances in health care
knowledge and delivery; and
what the future may hold as we
move forward.
Dr. Sharff has been on the
front lines of the pandemic from
the beginning, treating patients
and studying emerging data, and
meeting the pandemic challenges
not just as a healthcare provider,
but as a community member and
mother of two young children.
“COVID-19 will never real-
ly be over, even with the public
health emergency ending. But we
are in a much brighter situation
than we were a year ago,” said Dr.
Sharff. “Science is always evolv-
ing, and we cannot predict what
will happen, but we have made
great medical advancements in the
past three years. The public should
be reassured that vaccines and
therapeutics do work at prevent-
ing severe disease and hospital-
ization. New variants will emerge
and we will need to be dynamic in
our response moving forward and Dr. Katie Sharff, Chief of
learn from our prior experiences - Infectious Disease for Kaiser
both the successes and missteps.” Permanente Northwest