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This newspaper devotes much ink to the problems afflicting Portland. Less to the volunteers who seek to fix them.
So here’s a shout-out to the dozens of people who donate hours and hours of their time to serve on the city’s myriad of volunteer-run committees seeking to reshape how Portland is policed in the aftermath of a federal investigation into excessive uses of force and bloody clashes between cops and protesters in the summer of 2020.
These committees, which go by a series of easily confusable acronyms, have had varying levels of success. The PAC, or Police Accountability Commission, dissolved last summer after delivering a set of recommendations to the mayor that its members say were largely ignored. Among the points of contention were whether former law enforcement officials could participate on the new oversight board.
Angie Tomlinson, one of its co-chairs, said she was putting in 20 hours a week. “We’re all pretty exhausted. But it was really important to work.”
Tomlinson, a scientist by trade who was inspired to apply after losing a family member to police violence, says she’s spent thousands of hours volunteering for the commission.
Still, she says, the experience made her love Portland even more. “Even though the leaders weren’t necessarily supporting us, the community was.”
Celeste Carey co-chairs another committee, PCCEP. That’s the Portland Committee on Community-Engaged Policing, which, among other roles, solicits community input on the city’s efforts to comply with a settlement agreement with the U.S. Justice Department in response to police abuses.
She says watching the committee in action—ordinary Portlanders making their voices heard at the group’s public meetings—gives her hope for the city’s future. “It’s one of the things that makes Portland livable,” she says. “We may have our challenges, but there remain avenues to get us to solutions.”
It’s difficult work, says her other co-chair, Ashley Schofield. But, she adds, it’s worth it. “I just think magic can really happen.”