Street Roots’ Israel Bayer—who was in our podcast studio last week with SR managing editor Joanne Zuhl, to talk about Portland Patrol Inc (PPI) and the impending sit-lie ordinance—has an op-ed in today’s Oregonian, also on the sit-lie ordinance, PPI’s enforcement of the controversial law, and the lack of oversight on the private security firm.

Currently, the city of Portland has a $620,000 contract with the Portland Business Alliance to provide security and maintenance in public parks. The business alliance in turn, contracts with another private company, Portland Patrol Inc., to provide that security. There is no direct contract between the city and the armed guards patrolling the downtown area, even though they are monitoring our streets and have the power to exclude people from public parks for a period of time. A recent report in Street Roots revealed that Portland Patrol has issued more than 300 exclusions in our parks since November.

As a private entity, Portland Patrol is not under the authority of the Independent Police Review Division or the Citizen Review Committee, which review complaints from citizens against police officers. It should be. While the two police review boards are badly in need of reform, they provide a transparent process that allows law enforcement issues to become part of our public debate. We don’t have that same transparent process with Portland Patrol.

Read the whole piece here.

And check out the upcoming Mercury for a feature by Matt Davis on this same issue—PPI, and its lack of oversight.