A woman complaining about the alleged bad behavior of one of
Portland Patrol, Inc.’s (PPI) downtown rent-a-cops has written to City
Commissioner Erik Sten asking him to advocate for more oversight of the
private officers.
Regina Hannon says that on August 9, the armed PPI officer, Philip
Goodfellow, told a passerby that a group of protestors on the street
outside the Arlington Club on SW Salmon “should be shot.” The protest
was over a presentation by one of President Bush’s trade advisors, an
event organized by the Portland Business Alliance (PBA)โwhich
also happens to pay for PPI services to the tune of $1.57 million a
year.
When Hannon asked Goodfellow why he had said thatโand told him
she intended to report himโhe allegedly responded by wiping his
eyes, pretending to cry, and saying, “Boo hoo, I’m so scared.”
Goodfellowโa retired Portland police officer whose name
appears as a defendant in two civil rights suits against the City of
Portland in the 1980s, both of which were unsuccessfulโis also
alleged to have mocked the protestors by examining his hands when a
protestor said the US’s free trade agreements with Korea and Panama
meant “having blood on your hands.” He has been an armed guard at PPI
since December 2005.
PPI officers patrol downtown Portland focusing on “order maintenance
issues.” Many of them carry guns, but there is no independent oversight
of their activities [“Trust Me, I’m a Rent-a-Cop,” Feature, May 3].
Last week, the mayor’s office finally received a written PPI
complaints procedure from the PBAโwhich involves requesting a
business card from the officer in questionโbut homeless activists
like Street Roots Director Israel Bayer say it is “not
enough.”
In the meantime, Hannon has written to Commissioner Erik Sten, city
council’s chief homeless advocate, imploring him to get involved in the
issue.
“Erik does not disagree with the philosophical need for more
oversight for PPI,” says Sten’s staffer Jamaal Folsom. “Our top
priority is getting homeless people off the streets and into housing,
but this is an important issue that we’ll continue to track.”
Meanwhile, Hannon says she has arranged to sit down with PPI boss
John Hren to discuss her complaint on Wednesday, August 22. Neither
Hren, the PBA, nor the mayor’s office had returned the Mercury‘s
calls for comment on the complaint as of press time.
“Hren asked me what I would like to happen,” says Hannon, who spoke
with PPI’s head on Tuesday. “And I told him, this isn’t between me and
Goodfellow, but about oversight and accountability for his firm.”