RichLegg / Getty Images Portland police leadership have updated citywide policies to address racial disparities in traffic stops. On Tuesday, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell announced that he’s directed all officers to only focus on policing traffic violations that threatens public safety. This would limit officers from pulling over drivers for low-level infractions, like a […]
Cops
Posted inNews
Portland Officers Resign En Masse from Police Team Assigned to Protests
RRT officers gathered at a protest in downtown Portland in February 2020. Doug Brown The members of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) unit assigned to respond to protests and other crowd control situations voted to resign from the unit en masse Wednesday evening, according to several City Hall staffers. The mass resignation from the Rapid […]
Posted inNews
Portland Officer Charged for Assaulting Photojournalist During 2020 Protest
MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND For the first time in Portland’s history, an officer is facing criminal charges for using force against a member of the public during a protest. On Tuesday, a Multnomah County grand jury accused Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officer Corey Budworth of fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor, for assaulting photojournalist Teri Jacobs during an August […]
Posted inNews
Police Union Contract Negotiations Head Into Closed-Door Mediation
City Hall protests during the end of 2016’s PPA contract negotiations. Dirk Vanderhart After six months of virtual negotiations over its contract with the city, Portland’s union representing rank-and-file officers has asked to move the incomplete conversation into private mediation. The announcement, made by Portland Police Association (PPA) Monday morning, isn’t an entirely unexpected move: […]
Posted inNews
Family of Terrell Johnson Agrees to Settle Wrongful Death Case With City for $600,000
Terrell Johnson and a friend DARIAN BROWN City attorneys have agreed to give $600,000 to the family of Terrell Johnson, the 24-year-old man killed by a Portland cop in 2017, to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the city in 2019 for Johnson’s death. The settlement, which was agreed upon in court in late […]
Posted inNews
City Proposes New “Restorative” Discipline Guide for Police Misconduct
STEVE DYKES/GETTY IMAGES As the city and its police union enter their fifth month of contract negotiations, the two groups are finally delving into a historically fraught, much-anticipated topic: discipline for Portland Police Bureau (PPB) cops who commit misconduct. During a Wednesday bargaining session between the city and the Portland Police Association (PPA)—the union representing […]
Posted inNews
Tracking Funding, Cuts, and Investments to Portland Police Over the Past Year
A scene from a May 30, 2020 protest. Mathieu Lewis-Rolland [What follows is part two of a five-part series on the progress Portland has made on police reform over the past year. Read the rest here.—eds] The beginning of last year’s protests coincided with City Council’s deliberations on the city budget, a vote that determines […]
Posted inNews
A Year After Protests Began, What’s Changed in Portland Policing?
MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND The crowd reached downtown just before midnight on May 29, 2020, moving as a buzzing mass of energy and outrage through North Portland and across the Willamette River. When the hundreds of marchers turned down SW Main from 4th Ave. toward the Multnomah County Justice Center, where a few dozen protesters waited to […]
Posted inNews
City Points to Feds’ Hypocrisy in Criticism of PPB’s 2020 Protest Response
Federal officers stand next to Portland police during a July 4, 2020 protest. MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND In February, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that, because of the way Portland police handled 2020’s racial justice protests, the City of Portland was no longer in compliance with a 2014 settlement agreement between the DOJ and Portland. […]
Posted inNews
What’s in Mayor Wheeler’s Proposed $5.7 Billion Budget?
MOTOYA NAKAMURA / MULTNOMAH COUNTY Mayor Ted Wheeler’s once-grim outlook on the city’s upcoming budget has grown sunnier, thanks to an assist from the federal government. Wheeler’s proposed $5.7 billion budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, released Thursday, restores funding for city programs previously on the chopping block while avoiding large-scale investments in law enforcement. […]
Posted inNews
Special Prosecutors Assigned to Investigate Portland Police Killing of Robert Delgado
A memorial for Robert Delgado hangs in Lents Park. JORDAN BROKAW Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt are partnering to broaden the current investigation into the April 16 fatal shooting of Portlander Robert Delgado by Portland police officer Zachary DeLong. According to a Thursday announcement by both elected officials’ […]
Posted inNews
Family of Robert Delgado Call For Special Investigation into His Killing by Portland Cop
Attorney J. Ashlee Albies speaks during an afternoon press conference. Behind her stands family members of Robert Delgado. Alex Zielinski The family of Robert Delgado, the 46-year-old man killed by a Portland police officer last week, are calling for a special investigation into Delgado’s death. “We are seeking justice,” said Skyler Delgado, one of Robert’s […]