A seemingly innocuous case against a Portland police sergeant may set a new precedent for how far the county’s top lawyer will go to protect cops—and how little the citizen-led police oversight board can do about it.
When a Portlander brings a potentially criminal complaint against an officer, it’s Portland Police Bureau (PPB) procedure to call for two investigations: one conducted by PPB or city staff to find if the officer violated workplace rules, and another conducted by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office to decide if the officer broke any laws.
The administrative investigation is either handled by PPB’s internal affairs department or the Independent Police Review (IPR), the city department that investigates cases involving higher-ranking officers, crowd control cases, and issues involving vulnerable populations. A citizen can appeal a decision made by internal affairs or the IPR to the Citizen Review Committee (CRC)—a panel of 11 volunteer community members that then makes recommendations to the IPR.
That’s what happened in December, when PPB’s internal affairs decided Sergeant Erin Smith should not be disciplined for telling activist Ben Kerensa that he “could be arrested” for filming officers during a 2016 protest.
