[pjw] INFO: Commission finalizes new police oversight board plans for Council

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hi PJW supporters
Below is an email that just went to the Portland Copwatch list about the 
work of the Police Accountability Commission, on which I sat. They 
finished their work last night.

While I've been able to keep up with everything else here at PJW in the 20 
months the PAC met, and in fact continued to host the Friday Rally every 
single week (I'm about to head downtown for today's!!!) I still kind of 
feel like I wasn't properly focused on our work at PJW. I'm hoping to give 
more attention to people and issues as the PAC's work heads to City 
Council and my life goes back to "normal."

Thanks
dan handelman
peace and justice works/portland copwatch
ps sorry for any duplication



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2023 15:22:20
From: Portland Copwatch <copwatch at portlandcopwatch.org>
Subject: [pcw-list] INFO: Commission finalizes new oversight board plans for
     Council

PCW supporters
I was waiting to see if a formal announcement had gone out, but for lack
of that I will relay this information to you:

Last night, the Police Accountability Commission finalized its proposed
outline for the new police oversight board that was voted into the City
Charter in 2020. Each document was adopted unanimously by the 15
Commissioners present. (One of the 20 members was essentially on leave
of absence for the last few months and the others could not make the
meeting.) The PAC's tenure was originally scheduled to end on June 9;
the Commission asked Council for an extension until October 29, but
Council only approved the extension until August 31.

The plan is outlined in a 98-page packet to be incorporated into City
Code:
https://www.portland.gov/police-accountability/documents/pac-final-draft-city-code-recommendations-proposed-changes-0/download
and a 50-ish page Report with hundreds of pages of attachments:
https://www.portland.gov/police-accountability/documents/pac-draft-final-report-08-31-2023/download

Note that both of these documents are the final drafts; the actual
finished documents are being prepared by PAC staff for release sometime
in the next week or two.

Here's a high-level review of the differences between the newly proposed
system and the current one (taken from the PAC report):

1. The new Board is community-led with investigations run by non-police
investigators. The new Community Board for Police Accountability will
hire the Director of the new Office of Community-based Police
Accountability. The complaints/cases will move through one system.
(Charter Sections 2-1001 and 2-1005)

   In the current system cases/complaints are routinely shifted among
   four systems: the City's Independent Police Review (IPR); the Police
   Bureau's Internal Affairs unit (IA); the Citizen Review Committee
   (CRC), and the Police Review Board (PRB).

2. The new Board will make decisions about whether officers violated
policy and corrective action/discipline if appropriate (Charter Section
2-1007, proposed code Section 35D.180).

    In the current system, only in the appeals process (the Citizen Review
    Committee) are community members the majority decision-makers, and
    if the Chief disagrees with the committee's findings, City
    Council makes the final decision.

3. The new Board will investigate deadly force incidents and allow for
community members to appeal findings in those cases if officers
initially have findings other than  "out of policy" (Charter
Section 2-1008, proposed code section 35D.240).

    In the current system, IPR can go to the scene of deadly force
    incidents, observe the investigations, and vote on proposed findings
    at the PRB, but cannot investigate directly. The CRC has been told
    that they cannot hear appeals on deadly force cases.

4. The new system will provide complaint navigators to community members
from the beginning to the end of the process (proposed code section
35D.090).

    In the current system, a person only gets access to an "Appeals
    Process Advisor" toward the end of the process when there is an
    appeal filed.

5. The new system will be able to make recommendations about police
policy, training, directives, and practices to the Police Chief. While
that is not unique, the process after this is new: if the Chief does not
accept the recommendation, the new oversight board may send it to the
City Council, and the Charter mandates that the Council votes
whether to approve the recommendation. (Charter 2-1007b)

I've been hesitant to discuss details of the PAC's work over the last 20
months (!!!) because I was, until 12:01 AM today, still a "city
official." In the last several weeks, I was elected by the full PAC's
membership (of 19 active members) to be one of the three co-chairs for
the final phase of work. In that phase the PAC took all the research and
decisions from the first five phases and had them turned into City Code
language with the help of an attorney.

Later down the line I may describe more about the process of PAC and the
proposed new process.

For now here are some key takeaways from last night's meeting and the
final products:

--While the proposal to change Portland's system of government was not
passed unanimously by the Charter Review Commission, the PAC members all
supported the final plan.

--The meeting was scheduled to run from 6:30 to 9 PM, got started at
6:45 and the votes happened at about 10:45 PM. PAC members then spent
the next hour thanking everyone and giving heartfelt goodbyes to one
another.

--I attended ___every meeting and subcommittee meeting of the PAC__ not
to mention dozens of planning meetings and executive sessions with the
attorney. I think staff said that number is close to 150. What will I do
with my Monday and Thursday nights?

--In the final two sections of the Report to Council, the PAC outlines
that the system is about as strong as is able to be enacted in a system
that is still based on white supremacist principles. This message is
both to let the Council/police/police supporters and the community know
that the plan isn't as strong as the Commission would have liked it to
be, but the group did its best.

Thanks to all the other Commissioners, staff, facilitators and community
members who got us to this quasi-finish line.

Now the real work begins: Make sure Council adopts the plan as written
without gutting its important elements. A hearing is likely to come up
sometime after September 15.

We'll keep you posted.

dan handelman

-- Portland Copwatch
     (a project of Peace and Justice Works)
     PO Box 42456
     Portland, OR 97242
     503-236-3065 (office- call or text)
     503-321-5120 (incident report line- voicemail/text)
     copwatch at portlandcopwatch.org
     http://www.portlandcopwatch.org