Blogtown, PDX

Thursday, May 3, 2007

News Portland’s “Bad Apple” Rent-a-cop Calls The Mercury

Posted by Matt Davis on Thu, May 3 at 4:00 PM

Portland’s “bad apple” rent-a-cop, Kevin Chard, called up this morning to have a go at the Mercury. To catch you up, the Portland rent-a-cops patrolling downtown look like real cops, have similar uniforms, and many carry real guns. They share some of the same duties, in fact, they could easily be—and often are—mistaken for police officers by the average person on the street. But unlike real cops, they have no oversight. And their background checks are a little looser.

If you’ve read this week’s feature, you’ll know that Chard was hired and worked for Portland Patrol Inc, the downtown private security company paid for by the Portland Business Alliance to do “order maintenance” in the downtown core, between October 2006 and February 2007—until his background check was returned saying he had a “disqualifying criminal history.”

“He had a criminal conviction in California, which he wrongly believed had been expunged from his record,” says PPI boss John Hren, in his only public comment to the Mercury. “When we found out it had not been, we terminated his employment immediately, and he went back to California.”

Chard, who says he is in fact now living in Portland, was not happy to see his name in print.

“I’m a little embarrassed,” he says. “I made a mistake 15 years ago, it embarrasses the hell out of me to see it in print. I made a mistake in life, and you guys have no business digging up records on me. I thought it was expunged from my record.”

Chard adds that PPI is a firm of security guards. “Our job is to observe and report. We’re not pretending to be cops or anything like that.”

When I asked how he’d found out that his name was in the paper, Chard said he was not going to tell us. When I asked about his prior conviction, he refused to talk about it. I told him I would love to hear more about his time working for the firm, but he said he had to go. From his tone on the phone, I can’t imagine he’d make the most diplomatic downtown security guard—in fact, he was rather aggressive.

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Comments

Diplomatic security guards downtown? WTF!? I live downtown. Why do you want to coddle the felons and scum that created a need for extra patrols in the first place? Some people, like dealers at the Chinatown Gate, ought to be dealt with using an iron fist.

Sometimes, diplomacy is for chumps and liberal ya-yas.

How would you like it if your reputation was damaged by a highly zealous, smarmy, and ironically, widely-read, tampon wrapper?

I'd say you ought to stop lurching towards anything controversial and taking the child's side. Maybe if you would man-up, meet that fake cop in a bar, you'd get better brainwave reception. But your for sure too much of a pussy for that, so keep punching with your pens.

Posted by Tim Well | May 3, 2007 6:10 PM

reputation was damaged

By mentioning the truth of his history?

That's his problem, not the Mercury's.

Posted by b!X | May 3, 2007 7:14 PM

"But your for sure too much of a pussy for that, so keep punching with your pens."

... said the man commenting bravely on a blog.

Posted by Anonymous Coward | May 3, 2007 8:29 PM

hmmmm...Tim Well is a bit touchy about all
this isn't he...wonder why? Maybe these
are wannabee cops and this is closest to
the real deal they'll get and it's just
mindbending as all hell that nobody is all
that caught up in their little dramas?

Posted by Well Tim | May 3, 2007 8:52 PM

Not that I'm in the habit of validating sentiments like Tim Well's by even addressing them, but it's so riddled with illogic that I'd hate for it to stand without refutation.

Who said anything about "coddling felons and scum"? That's a far-cry from asking whether private security guards who walk around public spaces downtown, dressed just like cops, acting largely like cops, should be required to undergo the same transparency and oversight as actual cops. Unless what you're looking for is unchecked police power in the hands of corporations, which I think history has shown is a REALLY bad idea.

As for pussiness, I should point out that PPI were the ones who initially refused to even talk to us, and then when they did, spoke only a few words on the record. And as for Chard, I can attest that, this morning, Matt continually attempted to convince Chard to meet with him, and Chard stalled until he ended the conversation. You can accuse the Mercury of many things--cowardice ain't one of them.

Posted by Scott Moore | May 3, 2007 11:32 PM

Although to be fair I am now shitting myself about being beaten up by Kevin Chard.

Posted by Matt Davis | May 4, 2007 9:17 AM

Matt you may be the most wanted man in Portland.

Posted by Unpaid Interns | May 4, 2007 12:53 PM

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