The skanner., June 17, 2015, Page 8, Image 8

Local News
A Ride-Along with Portland Police in East County
Officer offers insight into the day-to-day of those charged with ‘protecting and serving’
By Donovan M. Smith
Of The Skanner News
T
he magic of a ride-
along, according to
Portland Police Bu-
reau’s Officer Tom Pen-
nington, is getting to see the
interaction between police
and citizens.
With
conversations
around police accountabili-
ty continuing to brew across
the nation, The Skanner
News sent reporter Donovan
M. Smith on a ride-along for
a glimpse into the working
lives of Portland police.
Pennington, an eight-year
veteran of the Portland Po-
lice Bureau, served as host
for the four-hour trip around
East County, a part of town
that is rapidly changing due
to development in the city
core.
“Everything that people
see in the movies, every-
thing people see in the news,
none of that is predomi-
nantly what police work is
about,” Pennington says.
“Police work, predominate-
ly, is about giving people
what they need so they can
be successful in life. And I
believe in that. I mean, I re-
ally believe in that.”
The last few years have
seen a spike in media cov-
erage of policing and police
accountability.
“When I go to a call, I’m
not thinking about the lat-
est headline, I’m thinking
about my personal safety
and what’s waiting for me
on this call,” he says. “So
if anything, national per-
ception or the national con-
Officer Tom Pennington
versation highlights discus-
sions that need to be talked
about, but I don’t feel that
that plays into how I interact
with people.”
And while headlines may
not factor into how Officer
Pennington does his job,
statistics might. Last year,
50 officers were killed by
firearms — a third of which
were in ambush-style at-
tacks. Not just that, but that
number was a 50 percent in-
crease from the 32 officers
killed just a year before.
Here in Portland, 29 cops
have been killed in the line
of duty since the force’s in-
ception in 1867. In that time
about one-third of those
deaths have been attributed
to gunfire.
In his eight years on the
force, Officer Pennington,
a former military cop, says
one of the scariest mo-
ments for him happened
this March. He says had to
make a split decision about
whether to fire his gun when
a large crowd of teenag-
ers congregated around the
East Precinct. The crowd,
numbering in the hundreds,
had been at a birthday party.
Shots rang out while Pen-
16-year-old boy from Port-
land.
Officer Pennington decid-
ed against using force.
“In a case like that, you
have to ask yourself, ‘Is
deadly, lethal force neces-
sary to keep everyone safe?’
And I remember thinking in
that split moment that there
were too many other juve-
niles in the area for me to
risk that. I just couldn’t risk
it. That was very scary for
me,” he says.
So far this year, there have
been two cases of Portland
Police officers firing their
weapons.
The first came in February
– Officer Charles Asheim,
a member of the Gang En-
forcement Team, fired at
Ryan Sudlow during a traf-
fic stop in Gresham after
Sudlow allegedly attempted
to flee police.
No one was injured in the
shooting, Sudlow was de-
tained, and after about two
weeks of administrative
leave, Asheim was reinstat-
ed to the gang squad.
with a knife before Officer
Thomas Clark hit the man
with two bullets while Offi-
cer Royce Curtiss followed
that up with a Taser.
Pennington says he has
never has fired his weapon,
something he is thankful for.
He says he only sees his
gun as a “life-saving tool.”
“It is the worst fear of
every officer to have to use
our firearm. We dread it. We
dread it because either our
or someone else’s life is at
risk, and that’s just the worst
fear,” Pennington says.
The same goes for the
Tasers all Portland Police
officers carry, says Penning-
ton.
However, if an officer
fires a gun, Pennington says,
it makes no sense to shoot
to wound. So if they fire, he
tells The Skanner, initially it
will be to kill.
“There should never be
a time to shoot to wound,”
he says, explaining that the
trajectory of a bullet. Once
it enters the body, it can be
unpredictable. “There are
‘When I go to a call, I’m not thinking about the
latest headline, I’m thinking about my personal
safety and what’s waiting for me on this call’
nington was checking out
the scene.
“It was not that far away
from where I was standing,
and I was really scared be-
cause I thought either I or
someone else was going be
hit by gunfire.”
The alleged shooter was
The second of this year’s
shootings proved fatal.
In March, officers re-
sponding to an alleged bur-
glary in progress came into
contact with suspect Tom
Healy, who was allegedly
wielding a knife. Police say
Healy was charging at them
plenty of instances where
a bullet has hit somebody
in the knee and ricocheted
and came out of their neck
or some kind of [similar] re-
action.”
“The only time a firearm
is used is in a lethal force
situation.”
In the four hours The
Skanner spent with Officer
Pennington, only two stops
were made.
The first was for a domes-
tic disturbance where he
and another officer simply
acted as mediators between
the two parties asking one
to step away from the house
for a few hours to cool
down.
The second, and last, stop
came from the family of a
man living with dementia
who’d forgotten where he
lives. Officer Pennington,
who spent a year serving
in the Behavioral Health
Unit, talked with the man
for close to twenty minutes,
and helped him back into his
residence.
Officer Pennington then
referred the man’s fami-
ly to some social service
agencies that may be better
equipped to help with sim-
ilar incidents in the future.
Following that call, the
remainder of the trip was
mostly filled with questions
about the day-to-day life of
a police officer.
“It really is a privilege for
me to serve in this job. I feel
like I’m serving in a noble
cause, to a noble people,”
Pennington says.
Portland State
Votes to Arm
Campus Security
T
he Portland State University Board of Trustees
voted on Thursday to arms some of their cam-
pus security with guns despite months of pro-
test from many in the student body.
The decision was came down in a 9 to 3 vote during
the last meeting of the school’s academic year fol-
lowing two years of discussion between the Portland
State community and the city at large on the issue.
The process started in 2013 with the establishment
of a task force, which studied campus security con-
cerns for six months before presenting the idea of
armed officers as one of several recommendations.
The Board approved the recommendations in Decem-
ber.
‘Trained, armed officers
will be added to the existing
unarmed campus security
force over the next
three years’
The new campus security safety force will receive
training from Portland Police and will be implement-
ed over the next three years.
“Trained, armed officers will be added to the exist-
ing unarmed campus security force over the next three
years. University of Oregon, Oregon State University,
Oregon Health & Science University, and virtually all
large colleges and universities in the United States al-
ready have armed officers on campus,” the university
said in a press statement.
Page 8 June 17, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner