Several major police oversight reform proposals have emerged in Portland in the wake of the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man killed after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Here are three ideas currently circulating:
-- Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty wants voters to support a ballot measure in November that would eliminate the police oversight systems now in place and create an independent Community Police Oversight Board that would investigate complaints against police, impose discipline and make recommendations for police policies and procedures.
Hardesty told community members Thursday night that the current city oversight system doesn’t have the public’s trust .
It’s long past the time “to just tinker around the edges'' with incremental fixes, she said.
“We need to absolutely blow up the system we have and create one that’s responsive to the community,‘' she said.
Hardesty has circulated a draft of a proposed change to the City Charter and expects full details of a future board will be fleshed out over the next year, once a ballot measure gains support.
Under the draft, the new board would be appointed by the council to investigate complaints against officers, determine and impose discipline, and make “community-centered recommendations” regarding police practices, policies and directives.
It would act independent of the city with a budget that’s “no less than 5% of the Police Bureau’s” annual operating budget, and have professional staff, including a director, professional investigators and administrative staff.
-- Paul Snell, a government and politics assistant professor at Pacific University, has his own idea of how to shake up the current system.
He’s proposing a nine-member Portland Board of Police Commissioners that would provide “civilian governance'' of the Police Bureau.
The city’s current Independent Police Review, the intake center for complaints against police, would be folded under the control of the commission and serve as an inspector general’s office able to run parallel investigations into alleged police misconduct. Those investigations as well as the internal affairs investigations would be submitted to the commission for review.
Modeled after similar commissions in Los Angeles, Honolulu and Oakland, Snell said it would control the police budget, hire or fire police chiefs and either be responsible for disciplining officers or make discipline recommendations to the police chief.
“Strong police-civilian governance is what’s missing,‘' Snell said.
Here’s Snell’s proposed charter change, executive summary.
Paul Snell is an assistant professor of government and politics at Pacific University. He's proposed creating a nine-member Portland Board of Police Commissioners.
The police commission would function as a “board of directors” and the police chief would serve as the chief executive officer. The commission wouldn’t “micromanage'' the police but set general guidelines, he said.
The city’s long-standing history of having the mayor or any City Council member serve as police commissioner would end.
Community organizations would recommend people to be appointed to the commission and they would have to be approved by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. The members would each be paid full-time wages and an executive director would be hired for the commission.
-- City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero has cautioned against “rushing too quickly'' to throw out the expertise of current Independent Police Review investigators under her office and urged “thoughtful community discussions” on necessary changes.
The police review investigators need more power and transparency, she said.
For example, state law and the police union’s contract now shield investigative files on alleged police misconduct from public scrutiny. A clause in the Portland Police Association’s contract requires that the city not unduly embarrass officers who are disciplined.
Both the law and contract must change, Hull Caballero said, to allow sharing investigative files and outcomes.
By not being allowed in most cases to show its work after a case has concluded, the Independent Police Review office hasn’t earned the public’s trust, she said.
Further, the police union contract should be amended to allow interviews by Independent Police Review investigators of officers in misconduct cases to occur in City Hall or the Portland Building without police internal affairs investigators present to allow for greater independence, she said.
The investigators also need access to police records, which they now don’t have. They currently must submit public records requests to obtain them, she said.
The auditor gave a presentation Thursday night on the current powers of the Independent Police Review and ideas on changes that could strengthen it.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
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