Street Roots director Israel Bayer has written the following letter to city council about the Portland Business Alliance wanting to continue paying the salaries of three Portland Police Officers:

7-31-07

Dear Mayor and Commissioners,

Street Roots fully supports the City of Portland’s goal to keep downtown safe.

We respect the Portland Business Alliance, the City of Portland and groups like Street Roots working together to create a healthy downtown for all Portlanders. We are
concerned that a private interest group will be paying for the salaries of three police officers working on behalf of the general public.

We are also concerned about the directive given to Portland police officers working in conjunction with private security guards in the downtown region. Currently, private security guards working for the Portland Patrol Inc. have the capacity to issue park exclusions. More than 1,100 exclusions have been given out to Portland citizens by the private agency since November.

Street Roots is concerned that any police officers paid for by the Portland Business Alliance would be working in conjunction with an agency that enforces public policy with no public directive or oversight.

Sincerely,

Israel Bayer
Director, Street Roots
211 NW Davis
Portland, Oregon 97209
503-228-5657
streetroots@hotmail.com
www.streetroots.org

Meanwhile Central Precinct Commander Mike Reese responds to the concerns over a possible conflict of interest.

“I don’t think so,” he says. “The officers have to follow our policies and procedures, they’re accountable to me and the citizens of Portland. The same standards of any Portland Police Officer apply to them. They deal with liveability issues in downtown and are some of our best officers.”

“What the PBA gets out of this is a liaison with our department,” says Reese. “The officers carry PPI radios as well as ours, and if PPI officers find a criminal problem, they call us.”

Reese points out that the Police Bureau also has contracts with the Housing Authority of Portland and Trimet to provide policing services. There is also an officer assigned to the Lloyd Business District who carries a Lloyd Center security radio alongside his police bureau radio.

“In a perfect world we’d have enough police officers to address any situation,” says Reese. “But we don’t live in a perfect world.”