Insightful report. This newly revealed reality poses an epistemological dilemma for Portland citizens: some of the uniformed cops we see on our streets aren't really cops (with a sworn duty to protect and whatever) but instead, are, for the nonce, independent contractors working for, say, the PBA. If I'm sleeping in front of City Hall at 7am, is the person kicking me awake a cop or a contractor? In most places, one can slide by using simple premises like "if it looks and quacks like a duck, it is one." Not here! Local city and county intrigues are more labyrintian than the mazaes in a Philip K. Dick novel. Brrr.