Compelling Testimony

SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, a citizen lodged
a complaint with
the city’s Independent Police Review (IPR) about the conduct of a
Portland police officer on the MAX platform at SE 82nd.

The officer, from Portland Police Bureau’s TriMet division, was
doing a fare check as passengers were climbing the stairs from the
platform, and asked a young man for his pass. The man briefly flashed
the officer an honored-citizen pass, and the officer said, “I need to
see it,” at which point the officer alleged the citizen hit him with
the pass, refused to show it again, and a fight ensued.

An internal affairs investigator looked into the fight, and the
IPR’s Citizen Review Committee (CRC) did not uphold the citizen’s
excessive-force complaint.

However, a Milwaukie police officer who saw the entire incident was
not allowed to testify to Portland’s Internal Affairs Department by his
own bureau—thanks to an unfortunate oversight loophole, which has
the CRC members concerned.

“I don’t know if the Milwaukie officer’s testimony would have
changed the outcome of the complaint because I don’t know what the
officer would have said,” says Michael Bigham, chair of the CRC. “But
we should have heard it.”

Officers from Milwaukie, Hillsboro, Beaverton, and Washington County
work in Portland on MAX with Portland’s TriMet cops under
intergovernmental agreements. But because of the way those agreements
are written, those officers are subject to a lower standard of
oversight than regular Portland cops. If a fellow Portland cop had
witnessed the fight, for example, they would have been compelled to
testify to Portland Police Bureau’s internal affairs detectives.

“My concern is that if these officers are working in my
jurisdiction, they should be responsible for the same rules as Portland
cops,” says CRC member Hank Miggins.

Last week, TriMet Commander Vince Jarmer told the CRC that he could
compel outside officers to write a police report on the incident if a
Portland officer was involved, but that he couldn’t force them to come
in for questioning.

Jarmer wrote in a follow-up letter to Bigham that he thought it
“unlikely” that the intergovernmental agreements could be amended.

“Making a statement or writing a report is not the same as being
interviewed,” says Copwatch activist Dan Handelman. “Especially with
calls for increased security on TriMet, this issue needs to be resolved
quickly.”

TriMet and Central Precinct are tied for the highest numbers of
use-of-force complaints per officer in the police bureau. Now, Bigham
and the CRC plan to take their concerns about oversight on the MAX to
Portland’s city council.

“The CRC really doesn’t have control over this,” says Bigham. “But
we’re hoping that if this is brought to the public’s attention, it may
bring about change at the city level.”