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Police Review Annual Report Ignores Force, Review Boards, Mental Health In late April, the "Independent" Police Review (IPR) released its 2018 Annual Report, now down from what was once over a 100 page document to just 17 pages. Missing from last year's Report are sections on the Bureau's Police Review Board (PRB) and IPR's goals. IPR did not publish data tables representing the point-in-time when they generated their Report, meaning the only way to check on the numbers is to head to IPR's two online "dashboards": One breaking down complaints and the other focusing on allegations.* Because those online databases are constantly updated, the numbers there do not match the printed Report. IPR has also continued to leave out relevant information about Use of Force, including how often officers were found out of policy for Force in 2018 (which was zero). There is also no mention of mental illness in the Report, even though that is the focus of a US Department of Justice Settlement Agreement which the Bureau and IPR are required to follow. And, for the second year in a row, IPR got the information wrong about the outcomes of its own Citizen Review Committee (CRC)'s hearings, something Portland Copwatch (PCW) had to point out both times.
None of the 57 allegations (19 Conduct, 14 Procedure, 9 Disparate Treatment, 9 Courtesy, 4 Force and 2 Control) IPR investigated in 2018 were Sustained. IPR now expresses the overall "sustain rate" based on allegations, saying 10% of possible misconduct findings were "Sustained." But that represents 36 out of 368 allegations which were fully investigated, ignoring that 1109 allegations came in to IPR and IA. The actual rate is 3.3%, slightly lower than last year's 3.6%. IPR dropped its data regarding how many times the PRB recommended Sustained findings, which they said was 67% of the time in 2017 and 78% in 2016. The Report notes there are once again more complainants who identify as African American, saying they are represented at "about four times that of white complainants compared to the Portland population." The dashboard data show this means 22% of complainants who gave their race (61 of 278) were African American in a city which is just 6% black. Other facts include: --207 cases were "administratively closed" (aka dismissed) by Internal Affairs and IPR out of 415 complaints, or 50%. IPR's closure rate on its own was 56%. That is the lowest dismissal rate since 2003, but not as low as the mere 42% of cases closed without disposition in 2002, IPR's first year. --The likelihood a person's case will be fully investigated once it comes through the door increased from a 1 in 5 chance (20%) in 2017, to a two in seven chance in 2018 (28%). --In terms of most common allegations, Rudeness dropped from its usual #1 or #2 spot to #3 in 2018. #1 was Inadequate Action. PCW's analysis is available at http://www.portlandcopwatch.org/iprannual2018analysis.html ; it includes a link to the IPR Report.
* -It is not clear why all these data aren't inter-connected in the same
"dashboard" to help drill down
about how race and other factors affect outcomes. |
September, 2019
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
#78 Table of Contents
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PCW determined that of 197 force
allegations made from 2017-18, only one was sustained (in
2017)-- a 0.5% sustain rate. The overall rate since 2002 when IPR was created is 1.0%. Though
most cases are investigated by the Bureau's Internal Affairs division (IA), IPR has investigated 122
allegations of Force since starting its "independent" investigations in 2013, and only one has been
Sustained (0.8%). IPR's Report doesn't mention the annual review they are required to commission
each year about deadly force, published by OIR Group last February (