We’ve been asking the same question all week:

On Wednesday night, January 16, Police Chief Rosie Sizer presented a report on the Racial Profiling Task Force, a group charged with working toward the elimination of racial profiling. Has Portland seen progress in this area? What can be done to further improve police-community relations?

And now, our mayoral candidates—some of them, at least; this is either an unusually busy or unusually disinterested set of candidates—respond. (In the original post, I said Jim Lee was out of town and unable to respond. I was wrong—he’s out of town next week, and still plans to respond. He wrote in four days ago with his response to this question, and I’ve given his response it’s own post, here.)

Sam Adams
Position sought: Mayor
Website: samforpdx.com
Public financing status: Not participating, capping contributions

We are all vulnerable to racial stereotyping, unintentional or not. Take just a moment to consider the impact of television programs like “COPS.” They implicitly encourage us to fear each other based on race, income status and other factors. In reality these should have no bearing on what our judgments of each other should be based on.

Have you seen a COPS episode where the cameras have followed police breaking down the office doors of white collar crime suspect like the CEO of Enron or WorldCom? I haven’t.

In this climate the potential for racial stereotyping exists in each of us and in society as a whole, including the Portland Police Bureau and all other city bureaus. The fact the police are charged with helping to keep us safe, and armed with deadly force and the power to use it if necessary is a good reason to prioritize dealing with racial stereotyping in the police bureau.

Last Wednesday, January 16, Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Joann Bowman, co-chairs of the Racial Profiling Task Force, presented a report to the Portland City Council, a group charged with working toward the elimination of racial stereotyping. Has Portland seen progress in this area? What can be done to further improve police-community relations?

The short answers are: (1) slow progress is being made that will serve as a foundation to address the issue of racial profiling, and (2) much more work needs to be done.

Racial stereotyping, also known as racial profiling, is any law enforcement practice in which a person is treated as a suspect because of his or her race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion rather than probable cause. Racial profiling has proven to be difficult to document and compiling data that all stakeholders agree to be credible has been difficult to collect as well.

My commitment to public service spans more than two decades now, and my experience educates me to believe we get what we plan and measure for. I always strive to make decisions based on the best available data before me. But with respect to racial profiling, we lack the data that all reasonable parties agree is credible. As a result, it’s not a surprise that we’ve been unable to set tangible goals and measurable milestones to document achievement towards those goals.

Everybody agrees our police bureau has a challenging job. In my experience they do it well under often-difficult circumstances, and we’ve seen continued improvement and increased morale under Chief Sizer’s leadership. We are often exposed to the one thing our police may have done wrong in any given day when thousands of good decisions go unnoticed. And I understand the difficulty of determining probable cause at a moment’s notice.

With racial profiling, however, the anecdotal evidence is so overwhelming that we have to acknowledge it does occur, even if only unintentional. To the credit of the Portland Police Bureau and the police union, they have begun to acknowledge this.

It wasn’t long ago there was a refusal by all stakeholders to even admit its presence. Acknowledgement alone constitutes progress for Portland. And beyond acknowledgement, Ms. Bowman, who is a former state representative, and police accountability advocate, noted before city council that relationships of trust among former adversaries are being formed from a refreshingly frank conversation about this very difficult issue. Bowman urged us not to dictate results now and to give the process underway time to produce results. This is another welcome sign of maturity for Portland and sets the stage for progress on this issue.

The next step is for the candid conversation to yield consensus-driven goals and measurable milestones to document achievement towards those goals.

I’d love for this to be done next week because I want the pain and indignity that racially profiled victims experience to end at once. However, I know the key to progress on this issue is establishing those relationships of trust, and they blossom on their timeline as we work together. I will ensure that we keep at it.

Craig Gier
Position sought: Mayor
Website: myspace.com/craiggierformayor
Public financing status: Not participating

I don't think any of what their doing is helping that much. I think that the best way to improve things would be to get not only the cops out their but the mayor. They both have a duty to perform, thats what we pay them for. Also instead of only working on items when something goes wrong lets try to fix them and keep them fixed. We also need dedicated officers in all areas of portland that are there for the long hall not just to have things smoothed over for good pr then leave. Thank you.

Kyle Burris
Position sought: Mayor
Website: site not up yet
Public financing status: Not participating

There is, of course, going to be talk of "training". This talk will imply that the officers involved were only profiling because they didn't know any better, and that making them sit through a three hour class - where they really don't want to be - is going to somehow make it all better.

There is, of course, going to be talk of "improvement", as if a less
racist police force is somehow an acceptable option. Never mind
standing up and demanding that every person with a badge meets the
highest standards in human behavior.

And there is, of course, always going to be talk of "new reports". A
subtitle implication, by everyone, that this is not how it's always
been. That this is not how it'll always be. That this is not just
the nature of the beast.

The fact is, no amount of training or bureaucracy is going to make
this situation better. You give a guy a gun and a badge; you give him
unrestricted power to harass, arrest, and kill anyone he wants; you
tell him the world is his enemy, and you toss him out onto the streets
where everyone resents his presence; that's really going to do
something to a man.

The real issue here is not, "what offensive thing are the cops doing
this week?". No. The real issue is what can we, as a city, be doing
to insure that we no longer need a standing police force?

As mayor, I will work to fight the real causes of violent crime -
poverty, and poor education. I will work to alter the laws, and
educate the public, so that more citizens can step up, and take care
of problems them selves. And I will work to scale back the size and
scope of our police force. Eliminating what is, on its very best
days, a necessary evil.

Gerhard Watzig has dropped out of the mayor's race. The other candidates—Sho Dozono, Beryl McNair, Jeff Taylor, and Slav Davidson—did not respond by deadline. (Lee was out of town and out of email reach, and Dozono's team expressed interest but didn't send in a response. Fingers crossed for next week!)