August 31, 2003
(Updated) Hopes And Fears As Portland Police Bureau Changes Hands
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
In the absence of any real information as to the hows and whys of Chief Mark Kroeker's dismissal from the Portland Police Bureau, local news outlets have started to take a look at his replacement, Derrick Foxworth. One such piece, appeared in today's Sunday Oregonian:
Those who know Foxworth emphasized his roots in Northeast Portland, where he grew up and still regularly eats and shops.
Northeast is where family, church and education at Benson High School shaped a person they describe as a "regular guy" with a photographic memory, one who maintains an even keel.
Those roots give him credibility with many of the same people who are most critical of the Police Bureau's relationship with the community.
"Derrick has been building relationships in this town for 30 years," said Paul Knauls, manager of the Northeast Portland barbershop where Foxworth gets his hair cut.
See the article for other comments by state legislators, a union official, a neighborhood activist, and a local antiwar activist.
And yes, Foxworth got in trouble several years back for running up large bills on his Bureau cell phone. It doesn't seem like a particularly big deal to anyone at this point, nor should it really. I'm sure we'll here more pros and cons on Foxworth in the coming days. Thus far, observers seem to be taking the "hopeful" perspective on the incoming Chief.
Meanwhile, Steve Duin today ponders the recent independent report on police-related shootings, the whereabouts of Mayor Katz and Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk, and the culture of fear which, he seems to say, both excuses police misconduct and prevents substantive change.
Update
Forgot to include David Sarasohn's column on this story, in which former Portland police chief Tom Potter says of Kroeker, "He saw community policing more as community-police relations. That's a different horse than community policing."
Comments (2)
Aaron on 01 Sep 2003
I'm optimistic at Foxworth's tenure, but I do have serious questions, particularly because he was Incident Commander during the Iraq War protests and the recent Bush visit.
We'll see if he does anything to discipline officers who participated in police terrorism during the protests, as there was a lawsuit filed for three egregious acts of police violence during the Iraq War protests, and will probably be one for two incidents during the last Bush visit.
However, the UP portion of the Bush visit went well - hopefully he'll ramp down the use of riot police, which do nothing but agitate the crowd. Keep them in the back if there's trouble, but don't put them near a peaceful crowd.
The One True b!X on 01 Sep 2003
I would tend to think that the White House would never have accepted a plan in which the riot cops were not numerous and visible. But at least, according to the Willamette Week, the PPB told the White House that if they insisted on letting the fund-raiser attendees go by car rather than shuttle buses and something went wrong, the PPB would tell the press precisely who's fault is was. The paper says it was Sizer and Rowley who delivered that threat, but I'd be curious to learn if Foxworth was in on it at all.