December 21, 2003
Portland Police Bureau To Release Guide To Reform Recommendations
With the release of this year's third major report on reforming Portland Police Bureau policies, Chief Derrick Foxworth said this week that the Bureau would develop a "matrix" detailing all recommendations and the Bureau's actions in response.
Earlier this week, the Community Police Organizational Review Team (CPORT), created by former Chief Mark Kroeker in the wake of the shooting death of Kenda James, concluded its work, recommending, according to The Oregonian, that the Bureau "set up a joint citizen-police board that reviews police use of deadly force; [keep] better records on police shootings; and [require] officers to document each time they point their gun at someone."
Also according to The Oregonian, many of the CPORT recommendations echo "those offered in a report released in August by outside consultants who found deficiencies in police investigations and review of officer shootings, along with faulty tactics that have put police in unnecessary risk."
As reported Friday by the Portland Tribune, the Bureau is now awash in policy reform recommendations. In addition to those of the outside review by the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC), and those of CPORT, there are also recommendations from the community report (pdf) from the Albina Ministerial Alliance (whose recommendations also overlap those of the PAC report).
Fortunately, according to the Tribune, the Bureau will compile a table of recommendations from all three reports, including information on Bureau activites or decisions in response to each (something Foxworth had done for the PARC report relatively quickly after being appointed Chief).
I'm especially impressed that Foxworth has decided to include the AMA report in this combined table of recommendations. While the recommendations themselves aren't inconsistent with those from other reports, the genesis of the AMA report out of the heated community reaction to the Kendra James shooting might have led other officials (read: Mark Kroeker) to avoid any response to it like the plague.
See the Oregonian and Tribune stories for details on the various recommendations and how they do or do not inter-related.