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Racial Profiling Committee Gets Use of Force Chief Rosie Sizer has slowly begun releasing statistics on the use of force by police against people of color in Portland. Not surprisingly, the statistics show a disproportionate use of force against African Americans compared to their representation in the population. The Mayor's Racial Profiling Committee has barely had time to examine the stats, as they were passed out at the December and March meetings without time set to discuss them. The Committee also received a "gift" much like the dead mouse your cat leaves for you on your front porch: The Portland Police Association (PPA) secretly contracted with a racial profiling "expert," who, surprise, surprise, said that the statistics may be out of proportion but can't be used to prove racial bias by officers. Also troubling was January's meeting, when the press was told not to report on the goings-on as Committee members shared their feelings in an intimate circle. Though it was an interesting exercise, the police committee members are now pushing to close all meetings to the press and the public to allow for more "open" dialogue. Portland Copwatch opposes this idea, as we support transparency in government. While traffic stops of African Americans, 7% of Portland's population, are high (14%), and pedestrian stops higher (28%), statistics for the pointing of firearms are even higher (30%). Other uses of force, such as taserings (28%), pepper spray (31%) and control holds/takedowns/handcuffing (all about 29%) are similarly lopsided, while a few forms of force rate lower, but still out of whack. Hobbling (disabling hands and feet with a strap between the cuffs) is at 18%, strikes with batons (17%), flashlights (21%) and less-lethal weapons (24%) occur at slightly lower rates. The police at the meetings have an excuse for all of this--if you look at the arrest rate, African Americans make up 27%; nationally the FBI says African Americans are 6 times more likely to be the perpetrators in murders. This all seems to be leading to an essentially racist generality, that black people commit more crimes, so the undue amount of stops, searches (24%), gun pointings, shootings, and beatings goes with the territory. While there has been a little discussion about the fact that many crimes committed by European Americans happen in private and in wealthier areas, the Committee is not well situated to take all this information into account. Even though one could argue that it is the PPA's fault that these meetings have been going in circles, as the officers at the table repeatedly assert that there is no racial profiling going on in Portland, PPA President Robert King ordered the study to "move the dialogue forward." In the February Rap Sheet, King writes that he is aware of community concerns regarding the statistics, but "Profiling is neither a stated nor unstated policy for the Bureau or the Association. ... Rather than engage in fruitless argument, the Association decided in September 2007 to retain Dr. Brian Withrow" to draw up the report. The conclusion: "The data is [sic] flawed and cannot be used to either prove or disprove the existence of racial profiling in Portland." What is good about the report is that it has a few good recomendations on other data police can collect to further examine what motivates officer actions--not too far off from the state Law Enforcement Data Collection Committee's recommendations made at the December meeting. Examples include separating searches incident to arrest, inventory searches, voluntary searches and probable cause searches. Although Committee co-chair JoAnn Bowman opposed the discussion of the report (Portland Tribune, March 28), the PPA flew Dr. Withrow in from Kansas for the April meeting anyway. He told the group that statistics will never prove that Racial Profiling exists. While this was troubling, his report specifically calls for drilling down to officer level, something the PPA has opposed in the past. As for Chief Sizer's plan, it hasn't changed much since March of 2007. The training for traffic stops, which includes an officer identifying him/herself and saying why they stopped someone, seems like a good step forward. However, upon viewing the training videos, in which white drivers and passengers rifle through glove boxes and argue with officers, many of the people of color at the table laughed at the failure to recognize the reality of what happens out in the streets when they are pulled over. In February, Portland Copwatch requested that Sizer reconsider her proposal to stop collecting data on officers pointing Tasers' laser sights at people. She refused, saying that (a) no other agency she knows of collects that data and (b) she had already changed the Use of Force form.
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May, 2008
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
#44 Table of Contents
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