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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2019)
May 8, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 from 33 to 26 days, closer to the group’s stated goal of 21 days. The report noted two significant shifts in how complaints are handled, under code changes en- acted by Portland City Council to both stream- line the complaint pro- cess and increase police accountability. The first change allows IPR in- “ We want to know, in our of- fice, if the system is working best for everybody vestigators to refer al- legations of minor rule violations directly to a police supervisor, whose conclusions are then reviewed by IPR. But investigations of more serious cases of miscon- duct are still conducted by either the IPR or In- ternal Affairs, and any officer’s supervisor who disagrees with investi- gators’ recommended findings must explain why, rather than simply take the report under ad- visement. In cases where IPR disagrees with a com- mander’s proposed find- ings, it can appeal the in- vestigation to the Police Review Board, an advi- sory body to the chief of police that includes law enforcement officers, members of the commu- nity, and an IPR manager. IPR senior manage- ment analyst KC Jones said that since these changes were enacted in July 2018, there is not yet enough data “for us to see if there are trends in commanders disagree- ing with IPR more than IA, or anything like that. It’s definitely something we’re interested in know- ing more about. We want to know, in our office, if the system is working best for everybody, and that’s something the De- partment of Justice is in- terested in, too. We want to know: If a community member’s case gets in- vestigated by us or by IA, are they getting the same treatment?” There was a 12 percent bump in complaints from community mem- bers, for a total of 415 complaints comprising 1,109 allegations total. Criticisms of police pro- cedure and unprofes- sional conduct were most common. IPR closed 56 percent of these cases after intake, largely because the com- plaints would not have violated police policy. Of the remaining cases, 19 percent were referred to IA for investigation, six percent were assigned to IPR for investigation, and 14 percent ended with the IPR’s recom- mendation for a supervi- sory investigation of the officer. While 35 percent of community complain- ants declined to disclose their race, the report noted those who identi- fied as Black “were over- represented at a rate of around four times that of White complainants compared to the Portland population.” The IPR tracks com- plaints received from within the police bureau separately, and found that in 2018, IA investi- gated 77 complaints from personnel, nearly dou- PHOTO BY R. DALLON ADAMS Police Teachers’ Day of Action Supporters, including teachers and students, gathered at Jefferson High School Wednesday morning to make signs and prepare for the May 8 Day of Action to rally for education funding. Portland Public Schools closed for the rally, which drew an estimated 20,000 people to downtown Portland. Watch for a story next week on education funding issues in the state. ble what it did in 2017. Of those, 25% of allega- tions had to do with pro- fessional conduct and courtesy, 13 percent took issue with the officer’s knowledge of “law, rules and orders,” 12 percent alleged less-than-satis- factory performance, 10 percent were complaints about “truthfulness,” and 7 percent called out im- proper dissemination of information. Jones said that IPR was unable to account for the uptick in personnel com- plaints, adding that the reporting process had not changed. “It would probably get more at something about the bureau’s culture that we can’t identify,” he said. “That was something we looked into, because that’s a huge jump. What we saw was complaints coming from parts of the bureau that typical- ly don’t have many com- plaints,” specifically re- cords and training. “On our side, we see the biggest rise is usual- ly in years where there’s a lot of protests,” Jones said, “or when (IPR) is investigating more pro- test cases, allegations of disparate treatment, and an allegation against a captain or above. That’s usually where we see a bump.” While only 10 per- cent of the complaints from community mem- bers were ultimately sustained, or deemed in violation of bureau policy, nearly half of the complaints from within the bureau were. Jones said this was likely due in part to bureau per- sonnel’s greater famil- iarity with policy and procedure. In total, 39 officers were disciplined for misconduct in 2018. Twenty were referred for command counsel- ing, six received letters of reprimand, nine were subject to a maximum of 40 hours without pay, and one was terminated. Three resigned or re- tired while under inves- tigation. Election The IPR maintains an interactive database of police misconduct alle- gations, as well as infor- mation about officer-in- volved shootings and in-custody deaths, which can be found here: https://www.portlan- doregon.gov/ipr/76848 The information is up- dated quarterly. cont’d from pg 1 The following is a list of races and candidates Portland voters will decide on this month. The Skanner has not yet published endorsements. Multnomah Education Service District (MESD) Director, Position 6, At Large Kristin Cornuelle Shira Newman Director, Position 5, Zone 1 Denyse Peterson Director, Position 7, Zone 3 Katrina Doughty Portland Community College (PCC) PPS cont’d from pg 1 decision to run. Clarke currently oversees the Pan-African Com- mons Student Center at Portland State, which encourages student retention. The child of Jamaican immigrants, Clarke attended Port- land Public Schools but dropped out, eventually obtaining a GED and later a bachelor’s degree in hu- man services and a master of arts in higher education leadership. She said she was able to return to school due to help from her sup- port network, but her background makes her especially sensitive to the needs of students on the prec- ipice of dropping out. “I’m really interested in being that person that I didn’t have in high school,” Clarke said. Clarke is interested in reten- tion, in addressing disparities in outcomes and in expanding wrap- around services like the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program, which connects families with housing, food and employment “ I’m really inter- ested in being that person that I didn’t have in high school assistance. She’s interested in hir- ing more para-professionals to help students stay on track, and in expanding restorative justice programs that focus on holding students accountable for harm, rather than focusing on punish- ments that are disproportionately used on students of color and push them into the school-to-prison pipeline. DePass’ platform is focused on making sure PPS’ budget aligns with its equity goals. She also noted that her experience at the Housing Bureau, and previously working with the Home Builders Association to develop a green building program means she has experience overseeing construc- tion projects and monitoring the budget for public works programs. DePass is a graduate of Emerge Oregon — the local field office of an 10-year-old nationwide program to train Democratic women to run for office — and Clarke is going through training with the organi- zation now. “When I look at the Zone 2 race, this is success,” said Jillian Schoene, executive director of Emerge, a political advocacy group funded by donations. “This is ex- actly what we’ve been looking for to make our elected bodies more reflective of the communities they serve. I’m excited.” The Zone 2 race is one of just a few races this spring, and one of the three other PPS races up for re-election this spring – Zone 1 – is uncontested. PPS’ Zone 2 includes the Jefferson High School cluster in Northeast Portland and a sec- tion of inner southeast Portland. Director, Zone 2 Tiffani L Penson Leonardo S Kendall Director, Zone 3 Michael Sonnleitner Jason H Young Portland School District (PPS) (MAP) Director, Zone 1 Zone 1 High School: Wilson Current: Julie Esparza Brown Candidates: Andrew J Scott Director, Zone 2 Zone 2 High Schools: Jefferson, Cleveland Current: Paul Anthony Candidates: Michelle A DePass, Shanice Brittany Clarke Director, Zone 3 Zone 3 High Schools: Lincoln Current: Amy Kohnstamm Candidates: Wes Soderback, Deb Mayer, Amy Kohnstamm (Incumbent) Director, Zone 7 Current: Mike Rosen Candidates: Robert Schultz, Eilidh Lowery Current School Board Members: https://www. pps.net/Page/1788
