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Mayor Ted Wheeler announced last night that the city of Portland had come to a compromise with its police union over pre-review of body camera footage, opening the door for the long-awaited rollout of the technology.
Today, the city published the details of the new policy. Officers will be interviewed prior to viewing body camera footage whenever they use force. But the structure of that interview will depend on the severity of the force.
The Portland Police Bureau plans to launch a pilot program soon using Axon cameras strapped to officers in the Central Precinct and on specialized gun-violence response teams.
The union and city hailed the compromise. “This is a big cultural change that the vast majority of our officers have been anticipating and hoping for for a long time,” says Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of the city’s police union, the Portland Police Association.
But activists are disappointed, saying the deal falls far short of expectations.
The U.S. Department of Justice, in an accompanying memo, admitted that the policy doesn’t tick off all of its desired boxes. But it endorsed the policy anyway.
“We see value in the compromise reached by the city and PPA. In particular, the proposed directive avoids the risk of litigation in state and federal court, potentially conflicting orders, and the resulting delay in implementing the BWC program,” a trio of DOJ attorneys wrote in a letter addressed to the Portland city attorney.
This decision befuddles activists.
“We don’t understand why the DOJ made this choice, and we’re disappointed,” says Eben Hoffer, legislative lead at the Mental Health Alliance. “Pre-review is still functionally allowed in all cases—and that is a problem.”
In cases when minimal force is used by officers, a supervisor will conduct an unrecorded interview prior to the officer filling out a report.
In cases of deadly force, officers must give “a perceptual statement to Internal Affairs investigators” within 48 hours. Neither the officer nor investigators may view body camera footage prior to the interview. Afterward, everyone will review the footage, and the officer will be allowed to clarify any discrepancies.
Hoffer is also concerned that there’s no quality assurance built into the policy. He pointed to other jurisdictions where auditors will randomly review police reports to make sure they match the body camera footage.
“If there’s a discrepancy between your report and your footage, then you get in trouble. In the end, that’s what makes reports faithful,” he says.
The Portland City Council will vote on the new policy at its meeting next week.
It’s still unclear when the pilot will launch. The Police Bureau says it’s still hammering out a timeline. It will take “at least a few months” to write the policies, obtain the equipment, and train officers how to use it, says police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Allen.
After the pilot period, the parties reserve the right to return to the bargaining table. But Schmautz the union president doesn’t expect that to be necessary. “One benefit of being the last people on earth to get cameras: A lot of the mistakes that have been made, we know about,” he says.