A group of prominent homeless and civil rights advocates is
meeting this week with city commissioners and the mayor’s office to
discuss a new list of oversight suggestions for the controversial
downtown private security firm, Portland Patrol, Inc. (PPI).
PPI contracts with the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) to carry out
“order maintenance” in the downtown core. Its officers dress like cops,
and many carry guns [“Trust Me, I’m a Rent-a-Cop, Feature, May 3]. They
have issued more than 1,400 park exclusions through a contract with the
city’s parks bureau since last November, but the firm has drawn
repeated criticism for its lack of transparent oversight.
As a private business, PPI has repeatedly refused comment on its
activities, and has insisted on investigating its own
complaints—often to the frustration of those complaining
[“Rent-a-Cops Run Wild!” News, Sept 13].
Last week, in a letter to city commissioners and the mayor’s office,
representatives from the Oregon Law Center, the Western Regional
Advocacy Project (WRAP), Street Roots, and Sisters of the Road
called for sweeping changes in the way PPI does business.
They want five changes: a straightforward, unbiased complaints and
grievance process that includes the City of Portland; public openness
about training and standard operating procedures; uniforms for PPI
officers that clearly differentiate them from the cops; removal of PPI
officers’ guns, no powers to detain people or search personal property;
and lastly, a revisiting of PPI’s ability to issue park exclusions.
So far, the group of advocates has set up meetings this week with
all of the city commissioners, apart from Sam Adams—whose office
is understood to be interested in the recommendations, but did not have
an official position on them by press time.
“The recommendations warrant discussion and possible consideration,”
says Jamaal Folsom, a staffer in Commissioner Erik Sten’s office.
“To me, the bigger issue is: Are they interacting appropriately with
the public?” says City Commissioner Randy Leonard. “I want to hear
[PPI’s] side, and go from there.”
The mayor’s office is interested, too, and says it has been working
with Street Roots, the PBA, and PPI for several months to make
the complaints process more streamlined and transparent. For example,
it announced PPI officers would give out business cards to complainants
back in August, and that PPI would begin providing quarterly reports to
the city listing complaints and how they are resolved.
“We’re amenable to sitting down with the committee and hearing what
they have to say,” says the mayor’s spokesman, John Doussard. Although
he adds that “it doesn’t mean we are dissatisfied in any way with the
work PPI has been doing.”
The only commissioner who’s not playing ball at the moment is Dan
Saltzman. He won’t discuss changes in the parks bureau’s contract with
PPI (which goes through the PBA) until it expires in 2010, and says he
is “satisfied” with the service PPI is providing. Saltzman wouldn’t
comment further on the group’s oversight recommendations.
“I think Portland as a city values accountability and transparency
in matters of public concern,” says Adam Arms, a legal advisor for
WRAP, one of the signatories on the oversight document. “Private
policing is a serious, serious concern and there has been a serious
lack of oversight. It would be unfortunate if it took somebody being
killed or shot before something happened, and I think that’s what this
group is saying—that there are dangers involved and we need to
get things back on track.”
Arms says he believes people’s civil rights are regularly being
violated by PPI officers who tell them to move off the sidewalk, and
says he has heard from the homeless community about people being
threatened by PPI officers if they refuse to comply with
directions.
“We feel this is the right thing to do,” adds Patrick Nolen of
Sisters of the Road, whose name is also on the document.
The PBA did not mention removing officers’ guns in a statement to
the Mercury, or changing their uniforms—but it does seem
more amenable to engaging in a discussion on the topic than it has in
the past.
“The Clean and Safe program already incorporates most of these
recommendations,” says Mike Kuykendall, vice president of downtown
services for the PBA. “And we stand by our extensive training and
complaints investigation process. For example, we currently provide the
city quarterly reports, enabling city council to monitor our complaint
process, and our training also includes homeless advocates.
“Our officers are mostly retired police officers with strong
community relations skills,” he continues. “Since 1988, these officers
have made downtown Portland safer for everyone, including the homeless
population.”
PPI itself did not respond to a request through the PBA for comment
by press time.