Skip to main content
Members of the Portland Police Bureau voted Wednesday night to resign en masse from the Rapid Response Team, sources in PPB and City Hall confirmed to WW. The news was first reported by KXL, a local radio station.
The officers resigned from the RRT, but not from the Police Bureau altogether, effectively disbanding the 50-member unit, which polices protests and other large-scale crowd control events.
In a statement issued Thursday morning, PPB said sworn members assigned to RRT “left their voluntary positions and no longer comprise a team” as of June 16.
“[The] members were sworn employees of the Portland police who served on RRT in addition to their daily assignment in the bureau,” the bureau said in a statement. “Despite no longer serving on RRT, they will continue in their regular assignments. There were approximately 50 employees serving as RRT members.”
The vote lands less than 48 hours after the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced the indictment of Officer Corey Budworth, who has been on administrative leave since Wednesday morning, according to a bureau spokesman.
Budworth, an RRT member, faces one count of fourth-degree assault for allegedly striking a woman in the head with a baton during an August 2020 protest.
The vote also follows news that, at the request of the DA’s office, the Oregon Department of Justice is considering criminal prosecution of Detective Erik Kammerer, who worked as a squad leader on RRT, for his alleged excessive use of force against multiple protesters. The DA’s office tells WW it has not referred any additional protest-related cases of PPB officers to DOJ.
UPDATE 9:55 am: This post has been updated with a statement from the Portland Police Bureau.