Sometimes outrage works.
Last week, Portland City Council took up three proposed changes to police oversight in the city. As tends to happen with these things, most of those changes were met with derision from the public.
During a marathon hearing lasting more than five hours, the council listened to person after person tearing the proposals to shreds—particularly a contentious item that would modify the city’s 2012 police reform settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and create a watered-down citizen oversight group.
Now, it looks like change is on the way. Two of the three proposed policies will have been substantively altered when they come before council again on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s a rundown of where things stand.