Transparency breeds debate, honesty, and a satisfied community that trusts its local government. It is also like walking into a very clean sliding glass door. Who wants that?

Racism exists in America, I'm not going to take issue with that!

Racism exists across the entire world!

At least this article seems a little less sensationalist and a little more factual.

It's a societal problem more than a policing problem.

How do we fix it?

Wait about 10,000 more years, it should fix itself.

"For more than a year the mayor's racial profiling committee has been meeting with the goal of 'eliminating racial profiling' by police—but they haven't made a dent in the problem."

If officers stop people based upon behavior (such as a traffic violation) and not race, there is no racial profiling. Maybe Ms. Bowman should take another look at the statistics and put her energy into solving the societal problems that seem to cause some minorities to commit a disproportionate number of crimes and/or traffic violations.

Ms. Bowman assumes this disproportion is somehow the fault of the police (the ones who enforce the rules) rather than underlying societal problems. Why is Ms. Bowman not outraged that a disproportionate number of Blacks report being the victim of crime? Should we blame PPB for taking a disproportionate number of crime reports that list Blacks as victims?

I can hear the phone calls now:

PoPo: "Ma'am/Sir, what is your ethnicity?"

Citizen: "Well, I'm Black, but what does that have to do with anything?"

PoPo: "Well, I'm sorry to inform you that members of the Black community already compose 6.6% of our crime victims this month. Therefore, we will be unable to accept your crime report. Please try again next month so we can keep our crime reports proportionate to Portland's racial populations."

I agree with r james.

This is a tuff problem with no easy answers.

Blacks get a bad deal, in general.

Blacks seem to commit more crime due to the lack of economic opportunities and the glorification of the "gangsta" culture.

This is not the cops fault, this is much bigger than the cops.

big shocker, blacks commit the majority of the crimes
take a look at the fbi crime statistics

Racial profiling can viewed the other way, as in "white privilege". A good example is Chief Sizer's recent attack on Adam's bicyclists... all warnings to whites so as to keep the profiling stats steady. Tickets would have documented white traffic crime as well as the Oregonian's front page.

Racial profiling can viewed the other way, as in "white privilege". A good example is Chief Sizer's recent attack on Adam's bicyclists... all warnings to whites so as to keep the profiling stats steady. Tickets would have documented white traffic crime as well as the Oregonian's front page.

Chief Sizer has been successfully working her plan for several months. The request made at the meeting was for a second update on the progress. It was also requested that the update be in writing, for the more visual learners in the group. (The most recent update was a verbal review of the previously distributed written plan.) This new update will be forthcoming. The matter was actually settled, quite amicably.

I personally believe there has been forward movement in the committee process. There are discussions that can occur now that couldn't occur 10 months ago. This is HUGE. We all know that it is VERY difficult to have a productive inter-racial conversation regarding the issues of race in this nation. I appreciate the recognition from another post that Racism is woven into the fabric of our nation. To ONLY address the policing actions will not address the root issues and will not solve underlying problems.

Regarding the article’s reporting of the two people who were unhappy about the Retreat’s outcome... the author failed to point out the conclusion of that discussion. The two things they stated concern about would actually be addressed in the 6-month goal of creating more "Customer service oriented" policing. Business cards and training (the two specific issues brought up) are exactly the types of issues to be addressed under this 6-month goal. The desire for more mandates for top-down change can also be addressed as part of this 6-month goal.

My thinking is that maybe they were unable to be in the room at the retreat when all of this was being discussed at length.

It is also important to note that that only two people who attended the retreat were unhappy with the very earnest work acheived. (A survey was taken.) Regarding attendance, it is July, a summer month when many people take vacations and others get very busy at work.

Lastly, Mr. Goodman was unable to attend the retreat due to a previous commitment. His question (that was used as a title for this article) was asked because he wanted to know what happened at the retreat. Not because he thought the new more focused goals were mere whitewashing. He wanted to make sure he understood what the goals hoped to achieve.

Last year everyone complained because they felt we hadn’t actually done anything. Now that we have concrete goals, people are complaining that we are not doing enough. Geez!

There will be no overnight change in a society that took more than 400 years to get where we are today. It will take time, education, letting down of defenses and open conversation for real change to occur. And it will take more than this committee to address the MAJOR issues within our communities of color. But, I for one, believe that the RPC can contribute to make our city a better place to live and create a healthier relationship between the police citizens and the citizens as a whole.

I say all this as a committed lifelong citizen of this wonderful city, a Jefferson High graduate (Class of '92), person of color and a police officer. I know progress can be made if ALL people keep an open mind and an eye on the goal of improving relationships.

Thanks for your comments, Officer Wesson. I appreciate your willingness to engage.