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A new draft report evaluating the Portland Police Bureau’s compliance with a 2012 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice criticizes training of the Rapid Response Team, a group of about 50 officers who volunteered to face off with racial justice protesters, and who resigned en masse in mid-June, effectively disbanding the unit.
The report, compiled by the law firm Rosenbaum & Associates LLP on behalf of Portland’s Compliance Officer and Community Liaison office (known as COCL), says PPB typically trains RRT members twice a year, but that an initial training scheduled for the first quarter of 2021 was canceled after the DOJ and COCL raised questions about the Police Bureau’s lesson plans for the now-defunct riot squad.
“We expressed concern that the training focused largely on how to perform certain force-related tasks (e.g., how to use a baton, or particular munitions), with little or no attention to why or when such force would be appropriate,” the report says. “Realizing the RRT lesson plans were deficient, PPB canceled the training.”
On March 24, according to the report, the city’s “Legal Office” provided an RRT training after Chief U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez ruled that PPB had violated a temporary restraining order.
“We observed this training and found it to be overall disappointing,” the report says. “The instructor did not communicate the importance of this training and at times appeared dismissive of the judge’s ruling. Consistent with this tone (or perhaps as a response to the tone), RRT members did not seem to take the training seriously (e.g., none of the attendees turned on their video cameras and one freely admitted to ‘multitasking’)...the instructor failed to clarify the difference between physical resistance and active aggression.”
Rosenbaum & Associates wrote in a July 12 letter to the city and DOJ that the firm will submit the final version of its first quarter report after accepting community feedback through Aug. 11.