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Cops Release Info on Four Discipline Cases
Months After 1st Police Review Board Report
Two More Officers Disciplined for Force at Protests,
Slide Deck Punishment Detailed; But No Shootings

On August 15, the Portland Police Bureau quietly updated the year's first Police Review Board (PRB) Report by adding four cases to the three we reported on in PPR #90. In the first half of the "March 2023" Report, there were two officers disciplined for force used at the racial justice protests in 2020; the update shows that two more officers were (theoretically) held accountable, each receiving one day off without pay. This is in contrast to the first two who had Command Counseling and a Letter of Reprimand issued to them. The other two new cases were the notorious training slide case involving Sgt. Jeff McDaniel, which led to 100 hours off without pay (PPR #89) and a Sergeant misusing PPB parking and patrol car privileges, leading to a day off without pay. As with the first version of this PRB Report, there were no deadly force incidents included, despite Portland Police firing their guns 17 times in 2021 and 2022.

The Bureau seems to have made a permanent policy of blacking out the specific dates of the PRB hearings and when the individual case reports were filed, although most of them include the year this time-- 2022. Though the officers and community members' names are never used in these Reports, it is clear that one of the protest incidents was Officer Brian Wheeler using his baton to shove medic Evelyn Cushing, which led to a $47,500 settlement (PPR #88).

As a reminder, the Police Review Board is generally made up of three members of the Police Bureau, a staff person from the "Independent" Police Review, and a community member picked from a pool of about 15 people. In more serious cases an extra officer of matching rank to the one involved and a member of the Citizen Review Committee are added. When they find wrongdoing, the PRB makes recommendations to the Chief about discipline.

The media reported McDaniel was going to face termination for including the violent, degrading "Prayer of the Alt Right" in a training slideshow for officers doing crowd control, but after a due process hearing, the Chief settled on 100 hours off (Oregonlive, February 23).

The Cushing case included a strange comment by at least one Board member, who worried that an out-of-policy force finding for Wheeler would hinder his ability to get a promotion. That's really one point of investigations and discipline, to keep violent cops from rising up the chain of command. The PRB Reports never say whether comments are made by police or community members. The other protest case involved a person hit in the leg with a "less lethal" munition. This action was deemed out of policy by a minority of the Board, who in a rare instance had their recommendation affirmed by the Chief. The reasoning: the person had been engaged in "active aggression" earlier during the protest but not at the time the officer used force while the person was moving away.

The car use case was about a Sergeant who, while in the role of "Acting Lieutenant," was allowed to take home a police car and park in a special Bureau parking space. Other officers complained when the Sergeant, no longer in their temporary promotional capacity, continued taking both of these privileges for themselves. The Sergeant admitted to both allegations, leading to two 5-0 votes to "Sustain" allegations of unauthorized use of Bureau resources and for a day off without pay. Interesting things about this case: it had no direct impact on the community, was filed by other officers, and admitted to by the suspect cop.

Even though the identity of two officers and one community member are easily discernible from the Report, the Bureau continues to withhold important information from the public while it boasts that the PRB Reports prove they are a transparent agency. The Bureau exacerbates the mistrust in the community by further removing data like the dates of PRB hearings from these Reports while elsewhere enacting a delay in identifying officers involved in deadly force incidents from 24 hours to 15 days (see shootings and chief articles).

January, 2024
Also in PPR #91

Portland Copwatch
PO Box 42456
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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