The body charged with investigating complaints against Portland police has itself come under fire for allegedly failing to fully investigate or resolve citizen complaints.
After Portland’s Independent Police Review Committee released their annual report last week, a number of groups have raised issues with the report.
They say that the Committee is trying to make itself look good, even though citizen dissatisfaction with the process has grown.
Despite the Independent Police Review’s description of their record as improving and responsive, local groups have documented a number of problems with the police review process.
Portland Copwatch analyzed the IPR’s annual report, and found that the report used misleading numbers to make it seem like more cases were resolved than was actually the case. In fact, only one of 27 cases investigated by the Internal Affairs Division was completed by the Bureau within the 5-month guideline.
Only ten percent of complaints made by citizens against the Portland police are fully investigated by the Independent police review committee.
One local housing activist, Stoop Nillson, spoke with KBOO about an incident last year in which a Portland officer conducted an illegal search on a pedestrian, then assaulted and lied to another person on the street.
Stoop Nilsson said she filed a complaint about the incident with the Independent Police review, but the complaint was dismissed without investigation.
According to Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch, this kind of dismissal of complaints is actually quite common in the police review process:
Although the city’s auditor has proposed changes to the Independent Police Review system, the new changes would still involve police officers reviewing other police officers.
Critics say that this will not address the main concerns with the police review process, which they say needs to include more civilian oversight and subpoena power over the police.
- KBOO