The Mercury finally obtained the policy behind the city's controversial Service Coordination Team (SCT) this week, after being promised a copy by July 1 ["The Policy that Wasn't There," News, May 22].

It turns out that while the city has been using the policy to hand out felony prosecutions to a select group of individuals on a "Dirty 30" list since 2003, officials only put the policy in writing in September 2008. The Standard Operating Procedures document, signed by Central Precinct Commander Mike Reese, makes mention of the list's existence since 2003, but is dated September 22, 2008.

City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who helped secure $840,000 for the expansion of the SCT last September and has been a staunch advocate of the program, wrote on the Mercury's blog in late August that "I have never been told of a list, I have never seen a list, I have never been told by the police bureau there is such a list, and I have never emailed an officer or anyone else about a list."

But the document makes clear mention of such a list: "The [Neighborhood Livability Crime Enforcement Program] Chronic Arrestee List is a confidential document that may only be shared with law enforcement or government employees responsible for the administration of social services, corrections, or courts processes associated with the arrestee," it says. In other words, the list has been kept a pretty deep and dark secret all along—apparently, even from the commissioner involved in funding the attached program's expansion. Commissioner Leonard did not respond to a request for comment. See blogtown.portlandmercury.com for more details. MD

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The Center neighborhood in Northeast Portland changed its name to "North Tabor." Despite the fact that few Portlanders refer to an official neighborhood name when identifying their 'hood, proponents of the name switch hoped "North Tabor" would create a stronger sense of place for the area.

"Really, nobody knew where 'Center' was," says resident DyLynn Robertson. Robertson says Center as a name dates back to a bizarre 1970s acronym for the area's activists: Citizens Engaged Now Toward Ecological Review. SM

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