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In the past three months, Portland police have gained a new chief and a new union president as well as a new police commissioner. Mike Reese had a tough first week on the job as chief. An officer was wounded and a man fatally shot by police just hours after Mayor Sam Adams announced that Reese would replace Rosie Sizer as chief. (At the same time, Adams took over the police commissioner job from Dan Saltzman.) Daryl Turner had a somewhat less eventful foray into his new position as Portland Police Association president about a month ago, though he did have to answer a few questions about his spicy rhetoric in the union's newsletter, Rap Sheet. He is the first African American to hold the job.
Both Reese and Turner have been with the force a long time (Reese for 16 years and Turner for 19). Before he started patrolling in Portland, Reese was a deputy in the Multnomah County Sheriff's office, a job he took after working as a counselor and program manager for area chapters of the Boys & Girls Club. He told the Oregonian he would like to see police training transition away from a "fear-based model" to one based on "competancy and confidence." Turner originally hails from Newark, New Jersey and has worked in the Portland police vice unit.
What questions do you have for these new leaders? What experiences have you had with police — in Portland or elsewhere? What do you hope the new chief and union president will change about how Portland police operate? What should stay the same?
GUESTS:
- Daryl Turner: President of the Portland Police Association
- Mike Reese: Chief of Police for the Portland Police Bureau
Tagged as: law · police · portland
Photo credit: Portland Police Bureau
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I am always disturbed by the term community policing. I come from a family with both fire fighters and police officers and community policing to our family means walking the beat and knowing the neighborhood.
Portland police do not know those in the neighborhood and I believe this fosters an Us vs. Them mentality. Both the union and administration must commit to remove barriers that keep officers and community members from knowing one another. The more we work as a community the safer Portland will be for residents and officers alike.
KMS
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You refer to the Portland Police Association as a Union. But is it legally in the same place as SEIU or other unions which are liable for their union activities ? If so, where has that been effectively applied if police officers acting in their union's activities were checked on their PPB activities ?
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Question:
I live in NE Portland near MLK. Why do police who pull over cars park their patrol car far from the curb blocking a good portion of the driving lane?
Commentary:
On narrow streets like Fremont or Alberta this causes a traffic jam, rubber necking, and confusion for drivers who might become mesmerized by looking at the police car's blinking lights. This tactic seems heavy handed.
Recently police arrested someone who lives close to me. Again their were two squad cars who half blocked the street with their squad cars making it difficult for passersby to get around. I asked the backup officer what was going on and got a terse response. This seemed logical because the backup officer was trying to pay attention to the ongoing situation. Not exactly the time for public relations.
Earlier in 2010 I was pulled over by an officer while riding my bike in St Johns. The officer was polite and explained why I was pulled over thoroughly. But I was surprised why the officer asked me where I was going. He wondered whether the air pump sticking out of my back pack was a weapon. Logical questions I suppose, but chilling too.
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I think Portland should also take a broad look at policing not just try to figure out what might be wrong with their police force. I live in another Oregon City, my two sons have been pulled over more times in their 7 and 9 years of driving than I have in my entire life. They have both been followed to my house and pulled over right in our driveway. They were never drunk or given a ticket for anything, this is simply young person profiling. It makes young people dislike police. I have also had abusive reaction from police when they ask me where I’m coming from and where I’m going, I don’t have to answer those questions, it’s none of their business and when I politely refuse to answer I have been threatened with arrest by officers. This “you have to respect me just because I’m an officer” is a big part of the problem, respect is earned.
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I just listened to the officer’s response to my comment about being inappropriately questioned and then threatened. I understand what he is saying but none of my experience in this situation was in a high crime area where things are going on as he characterized it. My experiences have all been being pulled over, usually at night, with no probable cause, because they want to try and get a DUII arrest, they ask a bunch or questions to determine if you are drunk then if you are they make you do the test. I have never been arrested or been charged with a DUII or given a ticket for whatever they pulled me over for, usually “you were weaving around”. Again, I don’t have to tell them where I’ve been or where I’m going.
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For sure! I am a female who was a night janitor, and was stopped a lot. Some police officers were pleasant, but plenty were intentionally intimidating, and yes, caused me to have a low opinion of police in general. Not long ago, we knew we did not have to show ID unless we were driving. Passengers should not have to show ID. This is a matter of protecting our liberty and not becoming a police state. The manner of some police officers is for a police state, not the nation that fought two world wars to not be a police state.
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The problem with the mentally ill is exasperbated by the lack of services available to those that are less fortunate. As a psychologist, I have tried to find a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner to prescribe psychotropic medications to clients who have Medicare and/or Medicaid (Oregon Health Plan OHP) as their insurance. After spending about 8 hours telephoning various providers, I could not find a single psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practioner willing to able to take these insurances. Physicians are unwilling to take new Medicare patients becuase of the low payment and complicated paper work required. OHP is unwilling to contract with anyone in Multnomah County except Western Psychological, Cascadia, or Lifeworks. But these 3 agenicies do not have any counselors that can accept Medicare and they require counseling before they will consider prescribing medication. So anyone with Medicare and OHP (which is the vast majority of chronically mentally ill) cannot go anywhere. It is extremely frustrating. OHP will not return my phone calls. --Dr. Charles O'Bannon, Licensed Psychologist
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This problem started, sometime in the early 80s I think, when the “experts” decided that mental health patients should be “mainstreamed” which just meant turn them loose on the streets to fend for themselves. We need a mental health hospital for these people.
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Last evening at the street fair I saw many officers as well as Chief Reese and who I believe was Officer Turner. Being out in public I feel is an excellent way to get closer to the people of Portland. There has been a "us Vs. them" feeling not just on the part of Portland citizens but also the Police. I chatted with officers who were very friendly and open last night and it felt good. When people are friendly it only comes naturally to become friends rather than not. Officers should feel free to treat non-threatening citizens in a friendly manner as many did last evening to build that trust and friendship among police and citizens and get out support and understanding. That is step one in my opinion.
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There is a training resource used by most big-city police forces that teaches officers, essentially, how to stay out of trouble with the community. It's called Lexipol. Portland is one of the very few that has chosen NOT to take advantage of this resource. Any chance this will change?
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"Reese ... He told the Oregonian he would like to see police training transition away from a "fear-based model" to one based on "competancy and confidence."
Well, right off, I agree with that change. Using fear gets a wide range of unwanted responses.
I remember as a kid I cornered a mouse in an empty grain bin on a farm and I was surprised that that tiny little mouse in its' fear turned at me and took up a position to fight me. And that response is also often the response that police get when they use fear with citizens.
So good on you, Reese, I hope it comes out well with this change.
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Why does Portland need so many strip clubs?
Are'nt these just breeding grounds for cimanl activity?
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I would like to see a travelling play written and set up for school kids that would simulate the Grand Jury, so that they get the idea of what are the responsibilities of Citizens in holding the Police and District Attorneys accountable and of what the Police and DAs actually do for us.
Set it up with the history of the Magna Charta and Habeas Corpus and a brief summary of Common Law and its' history, 911 calls, police responses and investigations, DA preparations, and go on through Grand Jury and even a simulated trial court and jury. Even a non-jury trial.
I think kids ought to learn these things in school.
Maybe the Police auxiliary groups and volunteer actors could train and put on such plays, rotating through classrooms or at school assemblies. Hmm, good experience for high school kids in acting classes, too.
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The problem with the Grand Jury system in Oregon is that the defendant doesn’t get to submit any testimony. All the information provided to the Grand Jury is provided by the arresting officer and the DA’s office. The Grand Jury gets a very slanted perspective, that’s why so many cases go to trial and later get plea bargained down. The defendant is willing to plead to something they didn’t do because defending themselves is absurdly expensive. Free David Black!
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I think that you have a misunderstanding of the Grand Jury system. I'd encourage you to learn more about it.
This is an example of why I'd like it taught in schools and at the earliest possible ages.
If I understand correctly, the Grand Jury is essentially a citizens trial of the police and DA, in which the citizens say "show us the evidence and if you are not believable we will not let you charge the defendant and try them".
Back before the Magna Charta, the King could charge anybody with any charge he made up, make up evidence and try the person. But the people de-fanged the king, with the Grand Jury system, the people put the citizens grand jury between the king and the defendant as a defense against the kings' unlimited power.
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Yes, education is our most cost effective way of preventing social problems
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I listened in Eugene, and here we have Cahoots as an alternative to the police. I much prefer Cahoots because they de-escalate the problem, while the police escalate problems with their war zone behavior. I think we have a real public relations problem with the police, in part because of their war zone behavior, and in part because budget cuts results in calls for help and being told no one will respond. Springfield police have killed so many people, and their manner is so bad, I hate to even drive through Springfeild. Whoever thought it was a good idea for police officers to be intimidating was wrong. Who wants to pay for that? Not me. Surely Cahoots is very concerned about protecting their own and others, but they go about it diffenetly.
Secondly, until 1958 the priority of public education was good citizenship. Every child learned the way to protect our liberty is to obey the laws. They also learned good manners, and were prepared to make moral judgments without the church. We used public education to Americanize the immigrants, and teaching good citizenhip was not left up to parents. It was the original reason the federal government mandated free public schools. Jefferson held such education is essential to a strong republic.
Education for technology is preparing our young for a technological society with unknown values. They are prepared to be products for industry. The social ramifications of this are very bad. And it sure is not preparing for them the future which demands precieving reality with awareness of quantum physics.
Culturally we are in trouble, because we stopped transmitting our culture. The place to correct our social problems is public education, not making more laws and demanding more from our police. That is the path of a police state. As Jefferson would let you know, religion is not the only path to morality, and transmitting a culture for the highest morality does not have to rely on religion. We used the classics to promote a highly moral society, and science is giving us good explanations of human behavior and morality.
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Comments are now closed.
If both these gentlemen could work together (putting aside the usual Labor/Management noise and howling) maybe they could find a way to remove the most violent officers they now employ and protect.
Such a scheme would go a long way to improving the trust of the Portland residents.