NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD PORTLAND, OREGON CHAPTER POST OFFICE BOX 40723 PORTLAND, OREGON 97240-0723
July 14th, 2017 Portland Mayor and Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler Portland City Commissioners Chloe Eudaly, Nick Fish, Amanda Fritz & Dan Saltzman 1221 SW 4th Avenue Portland, OR 97204 RE:
Use of Force Directives
Dear Portland City Council: Today is the deadline for public comment on a number of extremely important Portland Police Bureau (PPB) policies. The Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild calls on you to exercise your authority to extend this deadline and require a hearing with public input on PPB’s proposed Use of Force directives (1010.00 and 1010.10). On July 1st, the PPB posted for public review its proposed Deadly Force Procedures directive, along with numerous other important directives, including the 24-page general Use of Force directive. The PPB recently shrunk its directive review process from 30 to 15 days for many policies. A rushed two-week review period denies the public any semblance of meaningful participation in the directive review process, especially under circumstances like this, where notice was given over a long holiday weekend and the proposed changes involve life and death matters. Public review of PPB directives is required by the U.S. DOJ’s settlement with the City around a pattern of use of excessive force by the police, presumably in an effort to generate transparency and build trust with the public. It is undeniable that the proposed policy, and the current timeline for review, would have the opposite effect. Despite finally striking the widely despised “48-Hour Rule” from the Portland Police Association contract last fall, which allowed officers two days before producing testimony after employing deadly force, this new policy would extend that timeline considerably. Therefore, it is paramount that the public be allowed to critically examine this dismaying new rule. As the AMA Coalition’s July 12th press release highlighted, the proposed Deadly Force policy allows officers involved in the death of a community member to wait until after the District Attorney’s criminal investigation concludes – a timeline that often takes around three weeks, or ten times longer than the previously-eliminated 48 hours – to write a Force report or be compelled to testify about the deadly force incident for administrative review. -1-
On July 6th, Portland CopWatch authored a letter to Mayor Wheeler and Chief Marshman (which NLG, NAACP, AMAC, League of Women Voters, and Tom Steenson signed on to), expressing concern about the heavily diminished ability for the public to comment on the Use of Force/Deadly Force directives. In response, PPB Chief Mike Marshman explained, “the Bureau is eager to implement and train members to the new directive as soon as possible.” We strongly urge that instead of rushing an inauspicious policy for fall training, that the implementation be delayed in order to ensure the dire needs around police accountability are being met. Adopting the proposed policies today would be an enormous setback. Even without the 48-hour rule, families whose loved ones have been taken by police violence have already experienced a wanton deprivation of justice; this will only amplify the message that protecting officers is more important to the City and County than anything that resembles police accountability. Again, therefore, we are calling on the Portland City Council to exercise its authority to extend the deadline for public comment on the Use of Force/Deadly Force directives and require a public hearing, before any adoption or implementation occurs. For a Better World, NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD PORTLAND, OREGON CHAPTER
The NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD is an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers, organizers, and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization that shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. • -2-