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Training Advisory Council Looking at Crowd Control,
But Half a Year Behind in Force Data Analysis

At their July meeting, the Training Advisory Council (TAC) voted to adopt four sets of comments they made about the Bureau's Crowd Control training. In light of the intense focus on the Bureau's excessive force at protests in 2020 which has led to an indictment, officers resigning from crowd duty (see the Protests article in this issue), and recommendations from the Citizen Review Committee (CRC) on policies (see CRC article in this issue), it was disappointing that details of the recommendations were not discussed when the Council voted. However, at the same meeting they committed to creating a work group to make formal recommendations to the Bureau about crowd training, so perhaps there will be more community engagement moving forward. Meanwhile, in May they received data on the Q3 2020 Use of Force report, but not the Q4 or the Q1 2021 ones, which were completed before July. They also bid a too- fond farewell to Lt. Greg Stewart, who is retiring from the Bureau.

The recommendations about the crowd training came after eight of their more than 20 members attended trainings, an advantage they have as an advisory group to the police over groups like the CRC. The comments tended to be officer-centric, although there are also admonitions to remember the effects of certain actions on crowds. It would have been good for the TAC to discuss publicly that they criticized the Bureau for (a) having a Thin Blue Line flag hanging in the Training Division, and (b) making jokes about community trauma, implying the experiences of "Black and Brown persons are not taken seriously."

PCW reported on the Q3 data in our last issue PPR #83). The Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 data show familiar disparities around race, with African Americans making up between 25%-30% of those subjected to force by police in a city with a 6% Black population. It was interesting, then, that Lt. Chris Lindsey, the Force Inspector, went into excruciating details about the Q3 data, but when asked to speed up, quickly noted there was a screen reporting on demographic data but did not read that key information to the Council members.

At the May meeting, they also adopted recommendations about improving training for Bureau leadership. They corrected one point in their analysis of how many people were inaccurately reported to be armed but were not, which had been reprinted without context in the media.

The laudatory comments for Lt. Stewart began as a biography from Captain Dave Abrahmson that was handed to TAC Chair Shawn Campbell to read, but continued with Campbell himself praising Stewart for helping the Bureau be less defensive against the TAC's (relatively mild) criticisms. Other members asked whether "Greg" could be persuaded to stay on the force to help them. During public comment, Portland Copwatch (PCW) member Dan Handelman pointed out that Stewart killed a man by shooting him through the front door of Stewart's home in Scappoose in 2007 (PPR #43). This was said not to spoil the party, but to make that point that when reviewing officers' histories, the Bureau should acknowledge when officers have taken people's lives. The officers could describe how it impacted their lives/careers. Such honesty and openness would go a long way toward truth and reconciliation.

Finally, while the TAC has been meeting to share notes with the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing and the CRC informally, they are also part of the Bureau's official "Council of Advisory Groups" (CAG) which began meeting in 2020. PCW had called for such meetings to happen many times in the past. At the July meeting, Chair Campbell announced that TAC would be "stepping back" from its role on the CAG. The Q1 2021 Compliance Officer's report on the US Department of Justice Settlement Agreement indicates that there were arguments among the advisory groups about how to bring "critical information" to the Bureau. It sounds as if the other bodies (African American Advisory Council, Muslim Advisory Council, etc.) are mostly asking the police to do more about crime in their communities, rather than also reminding them of ways they need to be held accountable.

September, 2021
Also in PPR #84

Portland Copwatch
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Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

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