June 20, 2003
Poorly-Promoted Meeting Of The Citizen Review Committee Yields Complaints About Authority And Independence
Thursday evening there was a meeting of the Citizen Review Committee (part of the City's Independent Police Review), although you wouldn't know it from either of those two URLs, both of which are part of the City's much-vaunted new website which is supposed to be all about better keeping Portlanders informed.
Although I did know about the meeting in advance (thanks to this post), scheduling conflicts kept me away, so I'll have to rely on today's Oregonian report for details:
Community activists urged Portland's Citizens Review Committee on Thursday night to revamp the city's police oversight system, suggesting the panel needs more authority and independence to investigate officer misconduct.
But the most vehement critique of the system came from a member of the civilian committee, who said she felt the panel's role in hearing the public's complaints was "a sham."
T.J. Browning, one of nine panel members, delivered a blistering analysis of the city's 2-year-old police oversight system, saying the mayor's office and the auditor's office have prevented the panel from acting independently.
City Auditor Gary Blackmer, however, "said after the meeting that public oversight of the Portland Police Bureau is much stronger now than it was before the City Council voted in June 2001 to create the Independent Police Review Division."
Despite Blackmer's insistence that public review of the Portland Police Bureau is stornger now than it used to be under the previous system, the Committee intends to submit some recommendations to the City Council.