News Portland city commissioners unanimously voted to approve a new three-year contract with the police union  that gives the 900 union members a 2-percent raise in exchange for concessions on overtime, police oversight and random drug testing. And while other City of Portland unions gave up cost-of-living increases in 2010 in light of the recession (see update below), Commissioner Randy Leonard called ...   More

News The Portland Police Bureau on Wednesday afternoon released the medical examiner's report into the death of a 46-year-old man shot in a southeast Portland standoff. The autopsy concluded the man, Craig Boehler, had been shot but that the actual cause of death was smoke inhalation from a fire that consumed the house. The cause of that fire remains under investigation. And the officer who fired ...   More

News The City of Portland has offered $21,000 to settle a lawsuit by a police officer who claimed he suffered retaliation after voicing concern about one of the cops involved in the death of James Chasse Jr. Officer Tom Brennan was transferred from patrol duty to working in the Police Bureau property room last January. The move came shortly after Brennan expressed concern about a heated encounter ...   More

News As reported in this week's Murmurs, the sister of a man shot to death by a Portland cop in 2005 is now asking Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese not to promote the officer involved in the shooting. Officer Leo Besner tops the Police Bureau's list of officers to promote to sergeant. But Bobbie Jo Foster of Sammamish, Wash., argues in her Nov. 30 letter (PDF) that Besner has a history ...   More

News Scuttlebutt tonight in the Portland Police Bureau is that one or both parties in contract negotiations between the city and the police union are set to declare an impasse Friday. That situation would remove public scrutiny and move the contract talks behind closed doors. Negotiations were stalled for months earlier this year when the union balked at having residents and media observe meetings. After ...   More

News Contrary to their previously reported plans, the City of Portland and the police union survived a morning round of contract negotiations with neither side declaring impasse. That means the talks will remain open to the public for now. But the next round of talks is set for next Friday, Dec. 10. And the union president, Officer Daryl Turner, says the option remains to declare an impasse and ...   More

News After a last-minute intervention in Portland Mayor Sam Adams' office by a friend of a man fatally shot in 2005 by Portland Police Officer Leo Besner, it appears Besner will be promoted today to sergeant. (Update 1:23 pm: Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson confirms Besner was promoted in a ceremony this morning.) Besner is atop the Police Bureau's list of candidates for sergeant. The city ...   More

News UPDATE: The man shot by Portland police in the early morning hours today was wielding a replica gun similar to the one in the photo below, according to a news release this afternoon from the Police Bureau. The deceased man was identified as 45-year-old Darryel Dwayne Ferguson, a resident of the apartment complex. Here's the latest from the news release: Officers arrived and went to the apartment ...   More

News WW has obtained a working draft of the contract the Portland police union is negotiating with the city. The draft, received from a source inside the union, may come as a shock to many of the Portland Police Association's 900 members. In return for making major concessions in a new contract on controversial items such as comp time, police oversight and drug testing for officers, the union appears ...   More

News The Portland Police Association today announced on its website what the union leadership is calling a "tentative contract agreement" with the City of Portland. The announcement says the union's 900 members will learn the terms of the deal next month at two general meetings with Officer Daryl Turner, who heads the police union; and union attorney Will Aitchison. WW published excerpts on Dec. ...   More