June 14, 2004
(Updated) Portland Police Bureau Seeks Volunteers For New Review Boards
Will Examine 'Performance' And 'Use Of Force' Matters
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
At a news conference this afternoon, Chief Derrick Foxworth and Assistant Chief Bruce Prunk discussed the application process for citizens to volunteer for new boards charged with reviewing various police-involved incidents.
According to a letter recently sent to community members who had previously expressed an interest, there will be a Performance Review Board which will review the investigations of citizen complaints and internal performance issues, and a Use of Foce Review Board which will review officer-involved shootings, serious injuries caused by officers requiring hospitalization, in-custody deaths, out-of-policy "less lethal" incidents, and other cases determined at the discretion of the Chief or an assistant chief.
Foxworth indicated that these boards are to be advisory groups which report their findings to the Chief of Police, and if such findings include a determination that an action was outside Bureau policies they will also include recommendations as to response or discipline. As advisory groups, the actual decisions will continue to remain those of the Chief of Police.
Each board will consist of the Bureau's three assistant chiefs, commanding officers not involved in the incident in question, peer officers not involved in the incident in question, and an undetermined number of civilian citizens.
Prunk explained that the Bureau's intention is to create a pool of citizens interested in serving on such boards, somewhat like a jury pool. When a specific board is created, a number of people from the pool (currently envisioned to consist of fifteen people) will be called to serve upon it. Currently, the Bureau is looking at a likely three citizen members per board.
Time commitments are expected to vary depending upon the complexity of the cases being reviewed, but all memebrs of the citizen pool will be required to undergo forty hours of training to become familiar with police use of force, officer training curriculums, Bureau policies and directives, relevant Oregon Revised Statutes, and collective bargaining agreements.
Prunk pointed to review processes in place in Phoenix AZ, Minneapolis MN, and Clark County NV as the models being used by the Bureau to replace the current system wherein such reviews are conducted by upper management.
Those interested in volunteering for these review boards should pick up an application packet from any Portland Police Bureau facility. These packets include basic information, a non-disclosure agreement (due to the confidential nature of much of the information the review process will utilize), and a background check. The deadline for applying is July 1 -- approximately two and a half weeks from today.