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Mayor Ted Wheeler, along with Portland’s police union, is asking the City Council to approve a 6% raise for police officers who sign up for the riot squad.
A proposal by Wheeler posted today on the council agenda for next week’s meeting would approve the pay bump for members of “a new public order team with specific expertise in providing police services during public order events.”
It’ll cost the city $380,000 a year in additional police salary. “The city and PPA agree that it is helpful to provide a premium pay incentive to attract high-quality officers to this work,” the agenda item explains.
The new team’s predecessor, the Rapid Response Team, disbanded in 2021 after all 50 or so of its members resigned en masse to protest the indictment of one of its members, Officer Corey Budworth.
Budworth was charged with assault after he struck a photojournalist in the head with his baton as she covered the 2020 protests. The charges were later dropped after Budworth apologized.
Last August, an independent assessor recommended that the Portland Police Bureau create the new public order team consistent with “emerging standards”—and ensure it is “rigorously scrutinized by PPB executives.”
A subsequent October report by the bureau’s training division outlined the additional training that members of the new team would receive, including “40 hours of initial certification training and 8 hours per month of maintenance training.”