Dan Handelman, an ardent police watchdog and co-founder of Portland Copwatch, died Wednesday.

As first reported by The Oregonian, Handelman, 60, suffered a stroke and was in an intensive care unit earlier this week. 

Handelman was best known for his decades of commitment to police oversight and accountability in Portland. His rigorous monitoring of police conduct and policy was hard to miss. 

Note: This is a developing story and will be updated with additional context and reporting. 

Through his all-volunteer, grassroots group, Portland Copwatch (a project of Peace and Justice Works), Handelman was easily the most civically-engaged civilian in the city’s police accountability space. Many credit him with helping to bolster Portland’s police oversight system. Most recently, he played a key role in shaping the work of the city’s most robust, independent accountability framework. 

Handelman served on the Police Accountability Commission (PAC)–the advisory group appointed to develop Portland’s new, civilian-led oversight system for police. The Commission crafted recommendations for establishing a new oversight board, and determining how misconduct investigations and police discipline should be handled. 

“I am sad and still wrapping my head around this,” Marc Poris, who worked closely with Handelman as a volunteer at Portland Copwatch, told the Mercury. 

Jake Dockter is a fellow police watchdog in Portland who often found himself working alongside Handelman in the broader community push for better law enforcement oversight. Dockter noted Handelman's unwavering dedication.

"I am glad to have known Dan and learned from him. Dan was a gruff advocate who pushed buttons but he was dedicated to accountability," Dockter said. "He knew the devil was in the details and he catalogued and battled for them like no other. Dan wasn't always easy to get along with—he spoke his mind often without filter but he wouldn’t accept half measures.”

Handelman grew up in the suburbs of New York City. He was one of three kids—all boys—in his family. His mother was a journalist and his father served as mayor of their town, at one point.

“Growing up, our parents were very civically oriented," says Matt Handelman, Dan Handelman's brother.

Matt Handelman recalls his brother explored the United States on a massive road trip after graduating Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he studied theater.

"Some people got jobs and some people went on backpacking trips after college," he said. "Dan decided to take his car, which was kind of a jalopy, and drive to all 48 contiguous states.

"In the house we grew up in, we inherited a large map of the United States that was on the walls. My mother put little pins with dates on them in red tape, and was sort of tracking him around the country.”

He characterized his brother as "a sensitive soul" and "sort of a shy and private person," but said Handelman's passion for peace and justice issues meant he wasn't afraid to share his opinions. 

“There was a moment that I remember (around 1991), when I was living with him. I remember him getting out of his car, and there were tears in his eyes. It was the first day the United States started bombing Iraq. That’s the moment I saw him switch from doing theater work with peace and justice work on the side, to doing justice work with theater on the side," Handelman's brother said. “From that point on, things took off.”

His pursuit of peace laid the groundwork for every other endeavor.

"Dan was foremost driven by his principles to further peace and reduce suffering, and to highlight news of injustice beyond our Portland Police," says Jocelyn McAuley, a board member of Peace and Justice Works who worked alongside Handelman for roughly a decade in the Copwatch office. McAuley recalls Handelman's regular "Friday Rally" held downtown at Pioneer Courthouse Square, which was started as a protest of the US invasion of Iraq.

In his application to serve on the PAC, Handelman said he was eager to tap his wealth of knowledge about local and national policing to help design the new oversight system, including perspectives “from people who have experienced and/or are concerned about police misconduct including BIPOC, immigrant, refugee, low income/houseless people and people with mental health and substance abuse issues.”

Prior to serving on the PAC, Handelman was appointed to three other city commissions related to police oversight, including a work group established by former Mayor Vera Katz in 2000. 

Outside of the government arena, he also served on the Albina Ministerial Alliance steering committee for justice and police reform. 

For many, Handelman provided an entry point into Portland city-level politics, and helped empower others to speak out and seek justice. 

"Dan was a very important person in my life. I met him after the murder of my nephew Andre Payton," Teressa Raiford, founder of Don't Shoot Portland, told the Mercury. "He advised and consoled me. Pointed me in the direction of the auditors office, and would make sure I had a seat in spaces that otherwise were reserved for vetted members of our community.  He was brave and considerate.  The patience he showed and his determination cannot be replaced.  He did so much for us in this city I can’t imagine what we as DSP would have done without his support and friendship."

For years, Handelman attended meetings of Portland’s Citizen Review Committee–a volunteer police accountability group that works closely with other police oversight entities to vet community concerns, help develop policy, and assist with community complaints about police.

Yume Delegato served with Handelman on the PAC and now chairs the Citizen Review Committee. 

On Wednesday, Delegato remembered Handelman as “a tireless voice for the cause of police accountability in Portland.”

“We didn't always agree, but no one worked harder or longer or dreamed more expansively of what community safety could look like,” Delegato wrote in a social media post. “Rest easy, Dan. I'm sorry you never got to see the system you built.” 

Dan Handelman was a tireless voice for the cause of police accountability in Portland. We didn't always agree, but no one worked harder or longer or dreamed more expansively of what community safety could look like. Rest easy, Dan. I'm sorry you never got to see the system you built.

— Yume Delegato (@yume.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 6:23 PM

Other tributes poured in for Handelman.

Juan Chavez, an attorney with the Oregon Justice Resource Center, remembered Handelman as “deeply principled” and generous with his time. 

“With Dan goes one of our city’s most committed and knowledgeable police accountability advocates,” Chavez wrote. He told the Mercury Handelman was instrumental in helping establish the city’s new Community Board for Police Accountability.

“Dan did his part, and now it's for the rest of us to see it through—to build it, grow it, sustain it, and protect it.”

Handelman’s legacy is steeped not only in police accountability, but in the dogged pursuit of peace and social justice.

As his biography on the PAC website notes, Handelman “attended nearly every police oversight meeting in the City since 1992.”

“I am devastated and heartbroken,” Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos wrote Wednesday evening in a social media post. “This is an incalculable loss to our community. Thank you Dan for mentoring me and teaching me so much about police accountability. I wouldn't be the advocate I am today without Dan's relentless leadership. I will miss him so much.”