The Portland Police Bureau made improvements to its training program for officers since our 2015 audit. The recommendations from that audit were either implemented or in process, and in one case, no longer relevant.
Police training is an important component of ensuring public and police officer safety. Gaining and maintaining the public’s trust is more likely when officers do their jobs as they should, and training helps officers keep up with the rapid pace of changes in societal, legal, and policy expectations.
In the 2015 audit, we found improvement had already been made to training since a U.S. Department of Justice report found a “pattern or practice of excessive force used against mentally ill persons” in 2012. Improving training methods was a focus of that report and a subsequent settlement agreement between the City and the Justice Department. In this follow-up report, we continued to see improvement in the training function of the Police Bureau.