Sushma Raghavan and Mary Barbee
Raghavan is interim executive director of Unite Oregon, a Portland-based organization dedicated to racial, social, economic and gender justice. Barbee, whose cousin was killed by police in California, is a member of Pacific Northwest Family Circle, which unites families in Oregon and Washington to advocate for justice for loved ones killed by police.
Last month, the Portland Police Association decided to take negotiations with the city of Portland over its labor contract to private mediation. The move, which went against the city’s wishes, means any access the public might have had to observe that process is gone. As the city prepares for this next closed phase, its bargaining team must center the needs of our communities for accountability and transparency and channel the demands of thousands of Portlanders and dozens of community, labor, faith and neighborhood organizations.
The police union and U.S. Department of Justice have both proposed that the Portland Police adopt body-worn cameras, which can record police officers’ encounters with members of the public. They suggest that body-worn cameras will provide key independent evidence needed to judge an officer’s actions during misconduct investigations.
We are skeptical that body cameras will result in more accountable policing systems. However, if the city does adopt a body-worn camera program, it must also adopt a clear policy that can be enforced. This policy must ensure that cameras are a tool for justice and not simply another tool to surveil, cite, arrest and prosecute the public. And the policy most definitely must not allow police officers to review the video before writing reports about incidents under investigation, as the police union is proposing. Such a concession would undermine the stated purpose of body-worn cameras, as the justice department has pointed out.
The city must also secure changes to the contract that will empower the new community oversight board that voters passed last November and whose creation was further endorsed by Senate Bill 621. The board must be able to investigate officer misconduct without restrictions.
Sadly, current contract language would still thwart independent investigations by Portland’s new oversight board, just as it has impaired the current civilian review system. For instance, it ensures that oversight boards cannot compel officers to testify about alleged misconduct. And, even when officers are found guilty, the new board will not be able to recommend and impose discipline on officers, as proposed in the ballot initiative. When alleged misconduct rises to the level of a police officer’s killing of a community member, the contract language prevents any independent investigation by the community at all.
At every point, the police union has continued to fight the work needed to create the community oversight board. The city’s bargaining team must stay strong and remove all contract language that impedes the will of the 80%-plus of Portland voters who approved the new board.
Policing in Portland is at a crossroads. The status quo allows officers to maim and kill community members without accountability and devastates families across Oregon. Officers who commit flagrant abuses of their power and inflict harm on our communities have still not been made to answer for their actions. While the police contract is not the sole barrier to accountability, it is a critically important one. We need the City Council and their bargaining team to echo the public’s demands for a fair, community-centered, pro-accountability contract.
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July 28, 2021 at 08:31PM
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Opinion: Police contract talks must yield changes for accountability to community - OregonLive
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