POLICE COMMISSIONER Dan Saltzman has so far resisted a call
made last week by a majority of his council colleagues for the city to
publish its “secret list” of downtown offenders.
The list targets the most frequent arrestees in Old Town for felony
prosecution on crimes that would otherwise be prosecuted as
misdemeanors, as well as offering them drug treatment. The
Mercury first exposed the list’s existence in April 2008.
There is no way to find out if you are on the list, and no way to
challenge your status on the list—as such, it has already faced
its first constitutional challenge in court, when a judge overturned
the felony prosecution of two defendants involved in the program
[“Secret List on Trial,” News, Jan 15]. Broader constitutional
challenges are expected soon, but in the meantime, the city has
continued in its refusal to share the list with the public, on the
advice of city attorneys.
City council voted last Wednesday, August 26, to pay almost $1
million to Multnomah County to administer various parts of the
Neighborhood Livability Crime Enforcement Program (NLCEP), which in
turn administers the list. But the discussion took an unexpected turn
after council faced questions from public defense attorney Chris
O’Connor about keeping the list secret.
“I want to say treatment is great, I support it,” said O’Connor,
when the ordinance eventually came up for discussion. “But secret lists
are bad, and singling out people for enhanced prosecution is something
that history has taught us to be very wary of.”
“Commissioner Saltzman and I have one small disagreement, which is
publish this list,” responded City Commissioner Randy Leonard. “Other
than that this is a remarkable program.”
“I want to add my voice to the chorus arguing for publishing the
list,” said City Commissioner Nick Fish. “We get good legal advice from
the city attorney’s office, but ultimately we are the clients.”
City Commissioner Amanda Fritz said she agreed with the remarks made
by Fish and Leonard. “It’s public record how many times someone has
been arrested,” she said. “So why would we want to keep it secret?
Since people could go to the trouble to get hold of this information
themselves, I think the fact that it has been kept secret has become a
distraction.”
Despite three out of five council members calling for the list’s
publication (Mayor Sam Adams was unable to attend the meeting), it is
still not clear if the names will ever see the light of day. For his
part, Leonard said he would not file a city ordinance forcing the
publication of the list.
“I will defer to Dan’s judgment,” Leonard said, after the council
session. “But if I was the police commissioner and I heard what I heard
today, I would come back to my office and order the police chief to
publish the list on the web.”
“We’re looking into it,” says Saltzman’s chief of
staff, Brendan Finn. “Stay tuned.”