Police exit the federal courthouse in downtown Portland on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016.
Bryan M. Vance / OPB
The city of Portland is under orders to speed up police officer misconduct investigations. But a proposal to streamline the process was panned by the public at a Wednesday hearing.
The debate focused on a group called the Citizen Review Committee. It hears appeals in officer misconduct cases.
The committee is made up of volunteers. They’re supposed to hear appeals within 21 days. Right now they have a backlog of cases that stretches into next June.
City auditor Mary Hull Caballero, who oversees the CRC, proposed creating smaller panels of three members to hear appeals so that more could be scheduled each month. She also proposed eliminating public comment during the appeals.
Members of the committee and the public opposed those changes, and told the City Council that the backlog is minor compared to other problems.
Public defender Chris O’Connor said the process of filing a complaint against a police officer is so broken that most defense attorneys advise their clients not to bother with it.
“To me, it’s arguing about the paint job on a car with no engine. Some want it red, some want it blue, but the thing doesn’t run,” O’Connor said.
Police officers accused of misconduct often refuse to testify during the appeals, members of the public sometimes hurl insults at officers when they do show up, and one member of the committee said she has so little power to review cases she feels forced to rubber-stamp the police bureau’s decisions.
“I don’t always follow exactly the current standard of review,” said committee member Kiosha Ford.
In the current system, a police officer’s supervisor reads a misconduct investigation and then decides whether the complaint is sustained, unproven, or if the officer should be exonerated.
A complainant who disagrees with the decision can appeal to the citizen review committee.
But the committee has very little leeway to challenge the supervisor’s decision not to discipline an officer. They can only determine “if a reasonable person could make the finding in light of the evidence.”
“I cannot with good conscience vote in favor of a captain’s decision when it is clear that there has been inappropriate behavior, and I feel we are always pushed,” Ford said.
The committee urged the City Council to consider changing that standard, and to make more significant changes to the police accountability system.
Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Amanda Fritz said they’d been swayed by the testimony, and would look at setting up a task force to contemplate further changes to the Citizens Review Committee.
Auditor Mary Hull Caballero pushed back, saying that further delays in changing the CRC structure would only lead to a longer backlog of cases awaiting appeal.
The council will revisit the issue in a future hearing.