Remember this morning when a brand new police chief was announced, and we suggested that that could mean a seismic shake-up at the highest levels of the Portland Police Bureau? It didn't take long for that to play out.
The PPB issued a release this afternoon announcing that new Chief Mike Marshman—a captain in the police bureau until late this morning—was swapping out three assistant chiefs atop the bureau for his own choices, each of them veteran Portland officers. Along with fresh news that Donna Henderson, who's been acting chief for the last month, is about to retire, that means a complete restructuring of the top five positions in the police bureau.
Marshman is reassigning assistant chiefs Bob Day, Kevin Modica, and Mike Crebs—demoting each to captain and cutting their pay. He's eliminating a fourth assistant chief position.
From the release:
Bob Day has been assigned as the Captain of the Training Division, Kevin Modica has been assigned as the Captain of the Youth Services Division and Mike Crebs has been assigned as the Captain of the Traffic Division.
And here's who'll be replacing them:
Assistant Chief of Operations Chris Uehara. Assistant Chief Uehara is a 26-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau. His most recent assignment was as the Commander of North Precinct.
Assistant Chief of Investigations Matt Wagenknecht. Assistant Chief Wagenknecht is a 24-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau. His most recent assignment was as the Captain of the Tactical Operations Division.
Assistant Chief of Services Mike Leloff. Assistant Chief Leloff is a 26-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau. His most recent assignment was as the Commander of the Transit Police Division.
It'd be a crazy enough leadership swing on it's own for a bureau Mayor Charlie Hales never misses a chance to praise for improving use-of-force statistics, growing patience with people in mental health crisis, and willingness to change. But the changes don't remotely stop there.
Marshman also made a bunch of other swaps. He's changing up the commanders at each of the city's three police precincts, for one. Commander Sara Westbrook, who'd run the bureau's Central Precinct is now commander of the Transit Division, replacing Leloff. She's replaced by now-Commander Chris Davis, who'd been a captain.
Commander Dave Hendrie, who'd led the bureau's East Precinct, is now in charge of detectives. He's been replaced by Kelli Shaffer, who was a traffic captain until today.
Burke, the former commander in charge of detectives, now heads up North Precinct.
One change that's hard to ignore: Marshman reassigned Captain Derek Rodrigues, who's been in charge of the bureau's Professional Standards Division, and reported directly to O'Dea. Don't be surprised if that unit comes under intense scrutiny in the ongoing administrative investigation to an April 21 incident where former-Police Chief Larry O'Dea shot his friend. There are big questions about why the bureau didn't launch an internal investigation into that shooting, as it has with every other off-duty shooting by a Portland cop anyone can remember.
Going forward, Rodrigues will be captain of the bureau's Family Services Division.
The major shakeup doubtless involves opaque internal politics. It has at least something to do with the fact that each of the now-demoted assistant chiefs are reportedly under investigation by the city's Independent Police Review, which is looking into how the police bureau responded to news O'Dea shot a man.
The outcome of that investigation may have to wait for another one—a criminal inquiry being carried out by the Oregon Department of Justice into the circumstances of the April 21 shooting.
Hit the jump for the police bureau's full press release.
Chief Mike Marshman was sworn in this morning as the 46th Chief of Police in Portland Police Bureau history. Chief Marshman was sworn in at City Hall by Auditor Mary Hull-Caballero. Chief Lawrence P. O'Dea III is retiring after nearly 30 years of service.
Chief Marshman is making several changes to Bureau command structure to fit his three stated goals for the Bureau:
* Build community trust,
* Build internal legitimacy, and;
* Achieve Department of Justice compliance.To that end, Chief Marshman has named his three new Assistant Chiefs and reassigned several people to new positions within the Bureau.
Assistant Chief of Operations Chris Uehara. Assistant Chief Uehara is a 26-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau. His most recent assignment was as the Commander of North Precinct.
Assistant Chief of Investigations Matt Wagenknecht. Assistant Chief Wagenknecht is a 24-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau. His most recent assignment was as the Captain of the Tactical Operations Division.
Assistant Chief of Services Mike Leloff. Assistant Chief Leloff is a 26-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau. His most recent assignment was as the Commander of the Transit Police Division.
Chief Marshman is eliminating the fourth Assistant Chief position.
Former Assistant Chief's Bob Day, Kevin Modica and Mike Crebs will all be reassigned. Assistant Chief Donna Henderson is retiring from the Bureau after 28-years-of service.
Bob Day has been assigned as the Captain of the Training Division, Kevin Modica has been assigned as the Captain of the Youth Services Division and Mike Crebs has been assigned as the Captain of the Traffic Division.
"Each of the Assistant Chiefs has shown tremendous commitment to the Bureau," said Chief Mike Marshman. "These new assignments are critical functions in the Bureau and to the community. The Training Division plays a significant component of achieving Department of Justice compliance; the Youth Services Division plays a tremendous role in building community trust and relationships with young people and families; and, the Traffic Division is a key player in our commitment to eliminating traffic fatalities as part of Vision Zero."
Other new assignments are as follows:
North Precinct — Commander George Burke and Captain Vince Elmore
East Precinct — Commander Kelli Sheffer (promotion) and Captain Robert King (no change)
Central Precinct — Commander Chris Davis (promotion) and Captain Tom Hunt (no change)
Detective Division — Commander Dave Hendrie
Transit Police Division — Commander Sara Westbrook
Professional Standards Division — Captain John Brooks
Family Services Division — Captain Derek Rodrigues
Detective Division — Commander Dave Hendrie
Tactical Operations Division — Captain Bryan Parman
Strategic Services Division / Department of Justice — Acting Captain Steve Jones