Police Chief Mike Reese, asked by a citizen panel this August to punish a cop who pepper-sprayed homeless campers beneath the Morrison Bridge last fall, has decided to try for a compromise measure, police officials have announced.

In a letter last month to the Citizen Review Committee, which advises the city on police policy issues and handles appeals in misconduct cases, Reese offered to change the bureau's outright exoneration of Officer Todd Engstrom's use of pepper spray into a hazier "unproven" finding and also order a debriefing.

It's a significant gesture—but it's also a step short of what the CRC voted 6-1 to request back in August: that Reese find Engstrom out of policy. And that means the case will come back to the CRC for a "conference" hearing in November, where Reese will have a chance to change the CRC's minds in person. If he fails to do so, the CRC can send the appeal to the Portland City Council for a hearing, something that's happened only once before, according to Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch.

The stakes, however, are decidedly high. It's the first time in more than four years that the CRC has demanded punishment over the use of force. The last time was in February 2010, when the CRC asked then-Chief Rosie Sizer to punish Officer Ron Frashour for improperly Tasering a man named Frank Waterhouse in 2006. Sizer refused at first, relenting only after the CRC voted to send the case to Portland City Council, averting a council hearing.

Reese's gesture was described during this month's CRC meeting by Captain Dave Famous, who leads the bureau's Professional Standards division. The letter was not released at the hearing. The Mercury first asked for the letter on September 17, initially through the Independent Police Review Division, which deferred to the bureau because it wasn't the document's custodian, and then through the bureau itself. The bureau is expected to turn the letter over imminently.

"The chief, upon further review, is currently at unproven with a debriefing and looks forward to further discussion with the CRC at a conference hearing," Famous told the CRC.

Engstrom was already found out of policy over the incident, for another reason. Before ever using pepper-spray, he grabbed one of the camper's dogs, which Engstrom's superiors agreed had turned a tense situation into something that wound up requiring force.