 |
| Distraught Citizens Like Aaron Campbell in DOJ Report |
The Department of Justice rode into town fourteen months ago there was absolutely no chance things would go well for the Portland Police Bureau. However, it was doubly sure that the findings of the DOJ inquiry would be even worse news for Portland City Hall.
 |
| Mentally Ill Like James Chasse Addressed in Report |
In addition to the outright condemnation of past, including the recent past Portland leadership, the DOJ findings regarding the excessive use of force did a great deal of hidden damage to Portland in just 40 pages. And if you think there is room for debate about the severity of the reports finding or if you are in the mode of “tell me it ain’t true,” then you will need ignore phrases like; “pattern and practice”; “court enforceable conditions” and pretend you did not see or understand the meaning or the downstream implications of the word “unconstitutional” .
 |
| Cops Have No Where to Put Mentally Ill |
The DOJ report can be distracting if you are not a public policy junkie and, through no fault of your own, don’t have time to consider the broader implications. Don’t be confused by the finding and recommendations while focusing on the lack of policy and administrative controls regarding the use of force involving the mentally ill. This report– in no way– gives the city a pass when it comes to any future question of use of force. The fact is that the city is now walking a very thin blue line on the edge of the civil rights violations’ and those trial lawyers’ jack pot justice.
 |
| PPB Recruiting Photo |
But guaranteed this issue will not get fixed with more, hopeful language, empty buzz words and policy fads. More Crisis Team hours, Crisis Intervention Training and new phone numbers to call for help are nothing more than a future failure guarantee unless we give the cops the real help they need to protect the mentally ill.
Here are my recommendations:
- DOJ needs to overnight the report to the Governor’s Office, the Oregon Attorney General and the Oregon Legislature’s leadership. They need to edit the report to point a clear finger of blame at the miserable failure of the de-centralized mental health system in this state. They need to first demand an apology to the street cops who have been forced to deal with not chronic problem mental health issues on the streets or Portland but what has become a dangerous culture of mental illness. Then the state needs to be made to fund street level programs for police,prosecutors and courts backed by in part a re-centralized state mental health system.
- DOJ needs to require mileposts markers and a review oversight process of progress in the court enforced. That is to include not just in the reduction in the degree and number of use of force incidents involving the mentally ill. Much more emphasis should be placed on the administrative,supervisory and overall policy updating and street implementation.
- DOJ needs to require the city to create an annual public policy use of force review process at the city council level. The purpose is not to assure the cops are doing the right thing, although that can be included. The real purpose is to force the Police Commissioner and City Hall generally to prove that the use of force policy standards are current, have been implemented, evaluated and revised in line with accepted police and mental health practice.
- DOJ needs to assure the public process is more than a process but the priorities of the informed community becomes part of a signed and implemented agreement.
So in the end the cops will always be expected to follow the policy and react accordingly. Most of the time they do. When the individual police officer is outside the policy, corrective action needs to follow and follow with certainty.
