This Week in the Mercury
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Cops Police Supervisors Will Now Vote on Validity of Complaints Against Officers
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 2:58 PM
Eleven members of the Police Oversight Stakeholder Committee, including the the ACLU of Oregon and the League of Women Voters, and two city-written reports on police accountability recommended against letting supervising police officers vote on the validity of complaints against their subordinates. But that didn't stop city council from approving exactly that policy this morning in a 3-2 vote held after two rounds of debate.
Police accountability advocates sounded off on the change in late June, pointing to two Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC) reports that said allowing a supervising officer to vote on the committee that reviews citizen complaints would give the supervisor undue influence over what happens in the case.
But Police Chief Mike Reese and City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade favor the change and say they will keep close watch on the complaint process to make sure power is not abused. Their support swayed Commissioners Randy Leonard, Nick Fish and Mayor Sam Adams.
On the opposing side, Saltzman noted that he had met with Chief Reese about the issue, but nobody really addressed how the change squared with the two past city reports saying that allowing the supervising officer to vote is a bad idea.
Just as a refresher, this will only affect the minority of complaints against the police that are actually investigated:
- Mercury Staff
- Where do police complaints go?
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