Speaking of police oversight! This week, we’re asking the candidates:

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?

With a week left to go before 1,000 $5 contributions are due to the auditor’s office, every candidate in this race participating in the program is looking good (Mike Fahey isn’t participating in the program, and has yet to respond to our questions), as you can see by the status update alongside their responses.

John Branam got back to us first:

John Branam
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: john4pdx.org
Public financing status: 1,103 as of last night, Branam says

Chief Rosie Sizer has been Portland’s best police chief in more than a decade. She has been more receptive to community concerns and more willing to adopt better training procedures. Her comments condemning racial profiling and her commitment to ending it within the police force are critical to Portland’s ability to become a city where all citizens feel welcome and respected.

That said, there is a need for more decisive and substantive action. Her report arrives nearly two years after a series of community listening sessions hosted by Oregon Action. Further, these sessions arrived a few years after a Blue Ribbon Commission had already found officers are more likely to stop black and Latino drivers than white drivers. There is indeed a pattern. Over the years, there has been a good deal of earnest talk about racial profiling. Today, right now, is the time for action. This is not just an issue that affects blacks and Latinos, but substantively affects the city’s entire population.

First, Portland’s city council must speak out with a strong, unified and unwavering voice. There have been several reports offering substantive suggestions and recommendations about how the police bureau can reduce racial profiling. Portland’s City Council must push for full adoption of these recommendations. By not speaking out strongly against alleged racism, city council implicitly validates such behavior. Racial profiling has been tolerated for too long and needs to be addressed directly. Chief Sizer’s recent report is nothing new; it echoes findings from five years ago. This time, however, Portland’s City Council must speak with a singular voice and must take all necessary steps to end this deplorable behavior.

As a City Council member I would take specific steps towards eliminating racial suspicions and strengthening community policing. Taking a stance is important. But taking action is critical. I believe that to better police a neighborhood, individual officers need to have strong connections to those communities. One way to accomplish this is to set in place a work plan whereby each officer is expected to spend at least four hours each month working with a community organization. This is a great way for community members to know their officers better, and for officers to better understand the specific issues challenging a neighborhood. A deeper understanding of ethnic and racial differences is a big step towards eliminating prejudice and assumptions. I will set an example for this initiative by encouraging my staff members to each spend four hours per month working with a community organization.

A second measure to better integrate the police bureau with the neighborhoods they serve is to reemphasize recruitment efforts on young men and women from North and Northeast Portland. Over the past several years there have been highly publicized recruitment efforts for racial minorities from places as far away as Hawaii. By recruiting in our neighborhoods we will help ensure our officers have a stronger emotional connection to the people (and that the officers literally know our citizens), thus ensuring they are familiar with neighborhood dynamics. Putting in place individual officers who understand our diverse communities is a critical measure towards curbing racial profiling.

Having our city’s top leaders speaking and acting to end racial profiling—and doing so with a unified voice—is key to our success in this issue.

Chris Smith
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: citizensmith.us
Public financing status: 1,066 signatures & contributions as of last night, according to Smith

Recently I’ve watched as another “minority” community – cyclists, felt that they were very much disrespected by the Police after the deaths of two cyclists and the serious injury of another in right-turning crashes. Cyclists felt like whatever the law, the Police didn’t actually expect drivers to yield to cyclists. I’ve been encouraged by the response of the Bureau – negotiation of a new Community Policing Agreement, changes in the policy on how the bureau speaks to the press about bike crashes, and some personnel reassignments.

Of course racial profiling is in a completely different league, and I don’t mean to in any way equate these issues. But I think the key idea is the same – respect - and a need to examine the often unconscious biases that we may hold, and to talk through the issues.

I think Mayor Potter hit the nail on the head in his State of the City address:

It is an uncomfortable topic for many, but I believe race will remain an ugly, open sore on the body politic until we start talking honestly with each other...and listening.

We need to keep asking for, indeed demanding, better from the Police Bureau. But I think we all own a piece of this problem. This is part of a larger set of issues including disparity in educational outcomes and disparity in economic opportunity. We must face up to, talk about and listen to these issues as a community – with respect.

Jeff Bissonnette
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: portlandersforjeff.com
Public financing status: 832 signatures in hand, according to Bissonnette

In 2006, the Portland Police Bureau released a report on traffic stop data that showed if you were a black or Latino driver in Portland, you were twice as likely to be pulled over. The statistic was even worse in downtown where a black or Latino driver was almost 4 times more likely to be stopped. In March 2007, the city's Racial Profiling Committee also requested information about bicycle and pedestrian stops in addition to traffic stop data and found that throughout all of 2006, 24 percent of bike and pedestrian stops were African-American individuals, even though African-Americans make up 6.6 percent of the overall population. For a city that prides itself on the principles of justice and equity, this information is embarrassing.

As we all know, the first step in changing a situation is admitting that a problem exists. My perception is that there is growing, albeit gradual, recognition by a broad cross-section of city and community leaders, including the police, that many people of color in our community are confronted with racial profiling. As part of that recognition, the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon Action, the Center for Intercultural Organizing and the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center sponsored a series of Listening Sessions in mid-2006 to begin a dialogue between the community and the police about racial profiling. Indeed, the creation of the Racial Profiling Committee was one of the recommendations that came from the report that summarized those sessions.

The Listening Sessions and subsequent meetings of the Racial Profiling Committee have provided a forum for the issue to be addressed. Has there been progress in reducing racial profiling? Yes, in the sense that we can now publicly acknowledge the problem. But much remains to be done in actively addressing the issue. Talking about the issue, even though the conversation can get heated and emotional, is key to developing solutions. Among the solutions that I will promote as a city commissioner:

* ensure sustained support for the newly established Human Rights Commission that, in addition to the Racial Profiling Committee, can serve as an ongoing place to address racial profiling issues among other issues confronted by diverse populations in our city;
* push for increased Police Bureau officer recruitment from all of Portland neighborhoods;
* advocate for improved human resources policies and practices to ensure increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of multi-cultural and multilingual staff throughout all city bureaus;
* require ongoing reporting of traffic stop data and bicycle and pedestrian stop data on a quarterly basis;
* create continued and increased opportunities for the police and community members to interact in neutral, non-threatening environments.

Overall, I will actively seek input and feedback from the community groups who are engaged on this issue and keep open lines of communication and dialogue with members of the Police Bureau in order to be a trusted player by all sides. I intend to play a positive role with a clear goal: eliminating racial profiling.

Amanda Fritz
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: amandafritzforcitycouncil.com
Public financing status: Certified as a publicly financed candidate

The Racial Profiling Task Force has not yet completed its work, and the Mercury's own Matt Davis has been asked not to report on its discussions. The very fact that police officers and citizens are sitting in the same room talking about sensitive, important issues shows progress. One thing that can be done to improve police-community relations is for politicians, candidates, and reporters to honor the committee's work by not posturing in the media before their report is completed.

Relationships require mutual respect. In over 20 years of active participation in important Portland issues, I have talked with and listened to many people, both officers and neighborhood folks, all over the city. I have yet to hear anyone say, "Having politicians and candidates make sweeping feel-good or adversarial statements about how to fix society's problems is a really great way to address them". We need only remember the recent controversy over renaming Interstate Avenue to realize that calling people racists is not a good strategy to promote dialogue, understanding, or change in attitudes.

As your City Commissioner, I will respect the work of citizens and staff. I will wait for final reports and public testimony before making decisions, vote to fund and implement actions called for in adopted policies, and demand accountability to make sure the planned improvements are happening. In 2000, when the Council adopted the current structure for processing citizen complaints regarding police performance, an evaluation was promised in one year. That review is only now under way, after repeated reminders by the League of Women Voters and other community groups. If you elect me, I will continue to track pledges made by the Council, and I will be your voice calling for promises to be honored.

Every Portlander deserves basic services, including high levels of public safety for all, provided by adequate numbers of well-trained officers. If elected, I will ensure that the adopted recommendations in the final report of the Racial Profiling Task Force are implemented. Further, I will challenge discrimination and public policies that have led to a decrease in home ownership by African-Americans, inequity in our public schools, and fewer amenities in neighborhoods welcoming minority residents displaced from their homes in "revitalized" Urban Renewal Districts. Racism and prejudices exist in many, even most areas of life in Portland. That is wrong. I will work for real change throughout the system to eliminate all types of discrimination. Justice must be justice for all, for every person in every part of our city.

Charles Lewis
Position sought: Commissioner #1
Website: charleslewis.com
Public financing status: Turned in 1,137 contribution forms on Tuesday