If there’s one message that has come through loud and clear all year, it’s that Portlanders want true accountability for police. Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s proposed amendment to enshrine a new police oversight system into the city charter, Measure 26-217, is the city council’s biggest step forward to date. Despite some significant flaws, Portland residents should vote “yes.”
The measure calls for creating an independent commission of community members to investigate complaints against police as well as deadly force incidents. The commission would be able to subpoena officers to testify and have the authority to discipline officers, including firing them. It would operate independently of any bureau and could receive no less than 5% of the police bureau’s budget.
We wish the city had taken more time both to develop the structure as well as ensure its viability. Because the biggest obstacles to accountability aren’t in the city charter, but rather in state law and the police union contract. Unless those are changed to foster greater transparency and to give an independent citizens' body authority to make disciplinary decisions – a hugely difficult lift – residents won’t see any better outcomes than they do now. Enshrining budget decisions into the city charter is also a bad precedent, as it binds future city councils in handling one of its most basic responsibilities – figuring out how to pay for the city’s top needs in any given year.
That said, a vote for an independent police oversight body marks both a change in approach and a message to the police union of where the community stands. We expect that the committee tasked with implementing the system would be able to identify problems that may require other changes that voters would then need to vote on. It’s far from ideal, but it provides a better path forward than the status quo.
- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
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