The city council spent the afternoon hearing a progress report on the Independent Police Review Citizen Review Committee, from IPR Director Mary-Beth Baptista and Joann Jackson, of the CRC IPR Structure Review Workgroup.

You can check out the progress report here.

This all goes back to 2007, when Mayor Tom Potter commissioned a report on the IPR/CRC. Eileen Luna-Firebaugh did that report, and presented it to the council this past January. In October, this workgroup started meeting to "address the recommendations made by Ms. Luna-Firebaugh, along with recommendations made in several responses to the report."

There are six primary areas the workgroup is looking at, and they're working toward a draft report that'll be open to comments. "We hope to complete this report by mid-2009," says Jackson.

Those six areas? The complaint process, mediation, policy development, staffing and training issues, outreach, and increasing transparency.

Baptista, however, notes that "we didn't wait until this workgroup to... fulfill those recommendations."

"One of the biggest things we've accomplished is really starting to address the issue of community outreach," Baptista says. There's a draft public outreach plan on the IPR's site, and it's still open for public comment if you want to weigh in—check it out here.

Public testimony after the cut.

Robert Butler has "a comment about the failure of the... review board." He was stopped and cited "and I couldn't understand what the citation was for," he says. The officer said "that is for you to find out in court," Butler says. He wrote a letter to the commander of the North Precinct and the internal complaint division, then got the runaround. "I did a lot of other calls, like calling up CRC, but couldn't find them," he says. "That's where this stands. There's an official request... absolutely no resolution at this point."

"I went ring-around-the-rosie, still getting nowhere on this matter," Butler says.

Debbie Aiona of the League of Women Voters of Portland, which has "advocated for effective police oversight for over 22 years," she says. It "requires the leadership and involvement" of elected officials, city staffers, and citizens.

"We urge the next council to give this issue the attention it deserves," once the final report is finished.

Dan Handelman of Copwatch says "it's great to be able to come back and talk about the Luna-Firebaugh report."

"I cannot encourage you enough to get IPR to figure out how they're going to conduct independent investigations," he adds, noting that he cannot emphasis enough how much that will improve community confidence in the system.

"The whole council needs to stay engaged in this, because in the rare case where an appeal comes to you... you will be a part of the IPR process," he says.

Tamara DeRidder, a former city council candidate, and a member of the Rose City Park Neighborhood Association, urges the council to "get the information out" about the CRC to neighborhood groups and block watches. Perhaps "through a blog site. It could be done," she says.

"I appreciate this update, and look forward to the report in the spring," says Commissioner Dan Saltzman.

"Likewise," says Potter. "The consultant's report raised a number of issues... [such as] how in the processing of cases, the appeals process is handled," an issue Potter said he'll follow even when he's no longer mayor. With that, the council approves the progress report.