Portland Police Department:
http://shakashawshow.files.wordpress.com/2…

Of course, many of the police are not our "fellow citizens" because they live in Washington State, Sherwood, Woodburn, Estacada etc... I suspect that the number of PPB officers living in Lew Frederick's district is quite low.

Lew needs to work to make it legal under state law for municipalities to require public safety officers and emergency responders to live in the communities they serve.

Why is it people like Frederick think they can say whatever they want, so long as it's (1) negative, and (2) about cops?

Lew, where's the evidence that any single event in the Portland Police Bureau in the last 10 years has been influenced in the slightest by steroids? There's none of course, but you want cops to forfeit their privacy rights because you're guessing.

And stop with the sweeping generalities and start offering something concrete. You want psychological testing? Cops are already tested when they're hired; what more do you want, when do you want it, what would be your standards, and who would pay for it? You want to change the investigative system? We've already got a system with six layers of review, four of which involve civilians. What would you add to/subtract from that?

Most importantly, stop the name calling. It makes dialogue impossible.

@polis:

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/…

Oh, yeah, that's Canby. Well, there's this story, which is directly about Pdx cops:

http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3134/6459/

Lobaugh was mentioned in this complaint:

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Co…

Next question?

@polls:

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ss…

City Commissioner Dan Saltzman said flatly that racial profiling exists

Why would cops hide behind their privacy rights unless they had something to hide? Oh wait... now I sound like a cop.

This is precisely the sort of name-calling I was talking about. Yes, Matt, that was Canby, not Portland. There's never been anything of the sort in Portland, and the one instance you cite from a five-year-old article is about an unproven allegation involving an officer who has not been involved in any of the incidents Frederick describes. This is the slender reed upon which we should base drug testing? It's fascinating that those who most decry what they believe are abuse of rights by police are most willing to say that police shouldn't have rights.

Privacy, due process, and fairness aren't movable feasts. If we can't accord them to cops, we can hardly demand that they respect those same rights in others.

I fully support drug testing for the PPB. I did it in the military for six years, with someone watching, no less. These cops need to get over being butt hurt about this. Drug testing is the status quo in any major corporation, most financial institutions, and pretty much any warehouse/grunt work job.

It's just that sort of mentality coming from the cops that is causing such outrage in the community. They need to remember that they are simply civil servants and they work for us. They are no higher up on the food chain than Waste Management.

Should they be respected for the job they do?
Absolutely.

Should they be treated any differently than any other civil servant?
Absolutely NOT.

Great points, Polis. Thank you for pointing out Matt and Lew's illogic. They argue from emotion - they are both faith-based.

@Jackattak - I had to do drug testing in the Army, too - but they didn't test for steroids. They only tested for pot, cocaine, and heroin.

More importantly - what kind of "major corporations" are you talking about? I work for a huge one, and have friends at many others - NO major companies or financial institutions require repeat or random drug tests!

Um, you're wrong. I've worked for four major corporations here in Portland, two of which were financial institutions, and they all drug test randomly after hire.

Jubitz is a good example of a corporation here in Portland that is a warehouse/grunt workplace that randomly drug tests after hire.

It's an insurance/liability caveat. The employer saves on insurance premiums.

Again, this is nothing new.

Not sure when you were in the military, but you're also wrong about what they test for. I was the ADAP NCO for two of my units in 2001-2003 and they test for myriad substances, including performance-enhancing drugs, one of which is anabolic steroids.

@Jackattak - Ah! I bet you're right. When you said 'major corporations' I immediately thought of white-collar jobs. I've worked in a lot of warehouses, and I can believe you that they do random drug testing in those kind of jobs. I bet that even most of those companies don't test their execs, though.

I got out in '01, and was never in charge of anything, so only know what I was told - it could have been a load of hooey, or they could have started testing for more things later.

@Polis I'd hardly describe Jason Lobaugh as a "slender reed." And has Humphreys been tested for 'roids?

"Polis" throws monkey wrench to dia- logue when he says "...You want psychological testing? Cops are already tested when they're hired; what more do you want, when do you want it, what would be your standards, and who would pay for it?..." OK, granted they are given some battery of psychological tests when they're hired, but this is before they're infected with the Brotherhood of the Strong and other rightwing fundalooney extreme craziness and thereafter is when the need is most pressing. Test them till they decide it's no longer in their respective interests to belong to these silly organizations that breed hatred and are counterproductive to a sane society. Test them till they are tired of taking tests and GET IT!