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Portland Gets Third Chief in Six Months
We ran a side-by-side photo from the Portland Observer in our last issue showing outgoing
Chief Danielle Outlaw, who left to be Police Commissioner in Philadelphia, and her replacement
Jami Resch. Due to coronavirus and then the daily protests beginning in late May, Portland
Copwatch (PCW) was not able to set up a meeting to speak with Resch before she ceded her
position to Lt. Chuck Lovell, an African American officer who previously served as Outlaw's
adjutant. Resch told the media she did soul searching amidst the uprisings after the death of
George Floyd in Minneapolis, which began in Portland on May 28 (Oregonian, June 10).
On June 11, Lovell was sworn in as the new Chief. One factor in the decision was that Resch had recently promoted Captain Mike Krantz to be an Assistant Chief to replace Ryan Lee, who left Portland to become Chief in Boise, ID. Three Black- led groups wrote a letter criticizing Resch for failing to have any people of color on her command staff. Lee is Asian American; Deputy Chief Chris Davis, like Krantz and the two other Assistant Chiefs, is white. One of the groups which raised the concern, Word is Bond, is led by Lakayana Drury, who also chairs the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP). PCW's streak of meeting with every non-interim Chief is now broken, except Resch knew us from attending several of our meetings with Outlaw. We look forward to meeting with Lovell. In the meantime, keep a few things in mind: Lovell does not live in Portland, and did several military tours of duty with the Air Force prior to 2002 (Willamette Week, June 1). He was only promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant in 2017, meaning he never formally served in the three ranks below Chief before jumping to the head of the line. (Similarly, Resch went from Captain to Assistant Chief in a very short time.) Lovell served as a School Resource Officer and has a reputation for having good relationships with community members. However, despite PCW calling out his reference to the weapons fired at protestors as "tools," he continued to use the euphemism both in that same conversation at a public meeting of the PCCEP and again at a later meeting of the Citizen Review Committee. Resch's resignation was a bit of a surprise as she had stated upon appointment she intended to stay for five years to stabilize leadership. Portland has had 13 Chiefs since 1992: Potter, Moose, Berg (Interim), Kroeker, Foxworth, Sizer, Reese, O'Dea, Marshman, Uehara (interim), Outlaw, Resch, and Lovell. The average term has been just over two years. In another twist, Krantz left Portland to be Chief in Bend in late July, then Resch replaced him as a Portland Assistant Chief. |
September, 2020
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
#81 Table of Contents
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