The Portland City Council will vote next month on some major Portland Police Bureau (PPB) oversight changes and tonight will be one of the last chances for the community to speak up before they do.
On September 7, council will vote on the future of the Citizen Review Committee (CRC)—a volunteer civilian group overseen by the Auditor's Independent Police Review (IPR) that holds public hearings for citizens unhappy with how their complaints against the PPB were handled—and whether it'll be merged the bureau's Police Review Board (PRB), which is private. If the plan (as it is right now) passes, complaint appeal hearings will no longer be open to the public or the media.
From 6 to 8 p.m. at Portland Community College's Cascade Campus (Terrell Hall, 705 N. Killingsworth), council members are hosting a "town hall" to for community input "regarding proposed adjustments to streamline the complaint and commendation processes" for the PPB.
For background on the changes, check out this Portland Tribune story:
In an effort to streamline a system that federal Justice Department lawyers have characterized as byzantine, city officials including Portland’s elected auditor, Mary Hull Caballero, are considering scrapping the aspect of the city’s system that allows a citizen review committee to publicly hear appeals of bureau disciplinary decisions concerning alleged officer misconduct.Hull Caballero, who's been charged with implementing the City Council's direction, says the city’s 2012 settlement of a federal Department of Justice lawsuit leaves officials little choice. That’s because of how long the committee and the city’s Independent Police Review office has taken to process appeals of officer discipline.
Appeals, Hull Caballero says, “are taking 149 days to get through. They have to be done in 21 days. So we’re not even within striking distance of meeting the requirement in the agreement.”
At a meeting last Thursday, CRC members acknowledged that changes needed to made to streamline the system, but they did not want appeal hearings to be held in private. Here's a statement from Portland Copwatch's Dan Handelman on the proposed changes:
We'll have more on this topic in this week's paper. Here are the stories I've done on the CRC since joining the Mercury in late March:
•March 31: "A Portland Cop Deserves Discipline for Taunting A Local Activist, A Citizen Committee Says"
•April 6: "After Chaotic Meeting, a Big Part of Portland Police Oversight is on Hold"
•April 21: "Police Don't Show Up For Oversight Meeting; Frustrated Committee Votes To Legally Force Them To Show Up next Time"
•April 27: "After a No-Show, Police Watchdogs Are Forcing Cops to Appear"
•May 5: "Portland Police Show Up Again to Oversight Meeting, Score Victory in Confusing Complaint Hearing"
•May 10: "Portland Police Oversight Updates: Cops Used The Wrong Rules, Another Cancelled CRC Meeting, and Outbursts at the COAB"
•June 2: "For First Time in Years, City Council Will Decide Outcome of Police a Oversight Case (Update: Acting Chief Henderson Reverses Course)"
•June 8: "The Cops Just Caved to a Citizen Oversight Group"