Elected-in-charge: Mayor Ted Wheeler
Bureau or Office Director: Chief Chuck Lovell
We are tracking four reports and 31 recommendations
Two reports are related to the former Gang Enforcement Team, one is related to training, and one is related to overtime. The Bureau disbanded the Gang Team but is developing a successor program to investigate and proactively interrupt gun crimes and the recommendations still apply.
Police have implemented 16 recommendations, 15 are in process, and five are pending follow-up.
Highlight from Last Year
Although there is no training solely focused on avoiding profanity, demeaning labels, and inappropriate comments, the Bureau now provides training on Procedural Justice, which includes the concept of engaging people respectfully. The Bureau also provides Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement training, which teaches officers to intervene if another officer is engaging in harmful behavior toward members of the public.
To Do
The Bureau should adopt a technology directive that includes Council authorization of surveillance technology, advice from a privacy commission, and requirements for policies and reporting.
Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved
Report published March 3, 2015 | Follow-up report | Contact Martha Prinz
Since 2015, the Portland Police Bureau has fully implemented recommendations to have the Training Division play a bigger role in assessing policy changes and effects, to implement training related to treating people respectfully and intervening if another officer behaves disrespectfully, and to improve weapons check-out procedures. The Bureau is still working to implement some recommendations, including to provide more role-playing scenarios as part of training and to use more actual cases as part of ongoing officer training. A recommendation on less lethal weapon ammunition storage was no longer relevant due to an operational change made by the Bureau.
On this audit there were nine recommendations implemented, and three in process.
Gang Crime Investigations: Lack of accountability and transparency reduced the community's trust in police
Report published March 28, 2018| Follow-up report | Contact Minh Dan Vuong
Our audit of gang crime investigations found that the Gang Enforcement Team was collecting and sharing information about people's gang associations, but these practices were not accountable. We recommended the Bureau adopt a policy for information collection and publicly report results. In the year since our audit of the Gang Enforcement Team, the Police Bureau has made some progress in implementing our four recommendations for investigations. The Bureau discontinued the most active list, for which it had no policy and few safeguards. The Gang Enforcement Team also improved its case management but needs to publicly report results. We will follow up again in one year to check if the remaining recommendations are implemented. In early 2019, the Bureau restructured the Gang Enforcement Team as the Gun Violence Reduction Team.
On this audit there was one recommendation implemented, and three in process.
Gang Enforcement Patrol: The Police Bureau must show that traffic stops are effective
Report published March 28, 2018 | Follow-up report | Contact: Minh Dan Vuong
Our audit of gang enforcement patrols found the team was carrying out traffic stops that disproportionately affected African Americans, while community members were concerned that the stops were too broad and not limited to criminal gang suspects. The Bureau could not demonstrate that these stops were effective. We recommended the Bureau analyze stops data, set goals for effectiveness, and publicly report results. In the year since our audit of the Gang Enforcement Team, the Police Bureau has made some progress in implementing our five recommendations for patrol. Substantial work remains in documenting the investigative reasons for traffic stops and setting goals for the effectiveness of stops. We will follow up again in one year to check if the remaining recommendations are implemented. In early 2019, the Police Bureau restructured the Gang Enforcement Team as the Gun Violence Reduction Team.
On this audit there was one recommendation implemented, and four in process.
Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use
Report published October 1, 2019 | Follow-up report | Contact: Elizabeth Pape
Our police overtime audit found high overtime use in 2018: nearly 250,000 extra hours at a cost of $15.7 million. But the costs of overtime were not just financial. Long hours lead to more accidents, injuries, and burnout for officers. Secondary employment, which is off-duty contract work, also taxed a system that relied on overtime to meet minimum staffing needs. The program had a low public profile and inconsistent procedures despite risks it posed for the City. We recommended that the Bureau improve overtime data collection and reporting, change the approval process for off-duty work, and report publicly about contracts, hours worked at second jobs, and finances. Since 2019, the Bureau improved the secondary employment program by considering equity in contract approvals and creating a rationale for overhead charges. The Bureau also improved overtime data collection, oversight, and reporting. But it is still working to add important pieces of information, such as which supervisors authorized overtime and whether training attendance that caused overtime was discretionary.
On this audit there were five recommendations implemented, and five in process.
Police Intelligence-Gathering and Surveillance: Better management needed to protect civil rights
Report published April 6, 2022 | Contact: Elizabeth Pape
Keeping information about political activity and using surveillance technology without safeguards infringes on First Amendment rights. Police need direction about what to collect and a process to manage records when there is no criminal activity. The Bureau also needs improved technology policies.
This is a new audit with five recommendations pending follow-up.
In Process Recommendation Details
We recommended the Bureau improve the format of semiannual reports to include an assessment of how the training delivered during that period furthers Bureau policy, goals, and objectives, not just how many classes were offered and who attended. The Bureau is in the process of adding information to the training database about how each training course furthers Bureau policy, goals, and objectives. That work is ongoing, and the information is expected to be reflected in future semiannual reports. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended the Bureau be mindful of the need to consistently provide role-playing scenarios (particularly disengagement and confrontation management), especially for handling persons in mental crisis. Over the past five years, the Bureau provided fewer hours of scenario-based trainings, on average, per year, than the average for the three prior years. Trainings provided in 2020 were excluded from this calculation because the Bureau told us they offered fewer scenarios that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the scenarios offered involved opportunities to practice disengagement and confrontation management. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended that the Bureau expand efforts at training program evaluation to all important policy changes and Bureau initiatives that become part of training division responsibilities. The Training Division has a more extensive training needs assessment process than in the past and also evaluates more types of training. The Division told us they are doing more to link training to outcomes than in the past and plan to expand on that work. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended adopting official policies and procedures for collecting and disseminating information about people with gang relationships. Instead of adopting a new standard operating procedure for the Gang Enforcement Team, the Bureau began developing a directive on managing criminal intelligence files that will apply to all divisions. The Bureau circulated a draft of the directive for public comment in October 2018. It anticipated completion in October 2019. (Gang Crime Investigations: Lack of accountability and transparency reduced the community's trust in police)
We recommended ensuring that policies related to collecting information about people's gang relationships included certain information. The October 2018 draft directive included a requirement for reasonable suspicion, safeguards for completeness and accuracy, access and security safeguards, records retention, and regular review, as we recommended. But the draft did not include a statement of purpose and description of the type of information to be gathered and analyses and documentation of reasonable suspicion. (Gang Crime Investigations: Lack of accountability and transparency reduced the community's trust in police)
We recommended that the Bureau track the clearance rate for gang team investigations, set a goal for the clearance rate, and publicly report outcomes. The team revised a standard operating procedure in April 2018 to address this recommendation. It had a clearance rate goal of 30 percent for 2018 and 2019. Investigators said they cleared 41 of 140 cases (29 percent) in 2018. Caseload appears more balanced among detectives. The Bureau has not yet publicly reported the clearance goals and actual results for the team. (Gang Crime Investigations: Lack of accountability and transparency reduced the community's trust in police)
We recommended that the gang team require its officers to document the investigative reason for their traffic stops. The Police Bureau should regularly analyze the data and publish the results. The team still does not document investigative reasons for most stops. The Bureau said it plans to write a new directive to address this recommendation. (Gang Enforcement Patrol: The Police Bureau must show that traffic stops are effective)
We recommended that the gang team set goals to measure the effectiveness of patrol stops, and record whether a stop resulted in contacting a criminal gang suspect. The Bureau should regularly analyze the data and publish the results. The Bureau has not set effective goals for the Gun Violence Reduction Team's traffic stops. The Bureau wants to hire a consultant to analyze Fiscal Year 2018-19 data. The Bureau said it cannot track if stops resulted in contact with criminal gang suspects because gang designations no longer exist. (Gang Enforcement Patrol: The Police Bureau must show that traffic stops are effective)
We recommended that the gang team regularly monitor stops data and the percentage of encounters recorded as "mere conversations" and provide training to officers on when this classification should be used. The team has not monitored data on mere conversations, which are interactions in which a person has not been detained. Gang Enforcement officers received training on how to enter stops data. The Bureau still has no comprehensive data on mere conversations, because some interactions are captured as such and some are not. Mere conversations coded as such decreased: The Bureau reported 637 in 2016 and 191 in 2017. The Bureau said it was reviewing the feasibility of capturing more data on mere conversations in the future. (Gang Enforcement Patrol: The Police Bureau must show that traffic stops are effective)
We recommended that the Bureau evaluate the effectiveness of suppression operations by the Gang Enforcement Team by continuing review of crime trends and by reviewing arrest outcomes. Since March 2017, the team has carried out five suppression operations. The Bureau has a draft analysis of three operations. It does not, however, review whether those targeted by the operations were arrested. The Bureau said it was committed to reviewing the effect of future operations on crime. (Gang Enforcement Patrol: The Police Bureau must show that traffic stops are effective)
We recommended that the Bureau improve overtime data collection. It developed a new overtime dashboard with a publicly viewable version online and an internal version that supervisors could use to monitor individual officers' hours. It included the shifts during which overtime was worked, a unique code for tracking overtime for street protests, and the sergeant who approved overtime. The Bureau was still working to track whether training attendance that caused overtime was discretionary and which supervisor authorized overtime. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau develop useful reports so that supervisors could identify officers who worked and sergeants who authorized extraordinary amounts of overtime. The new overtime dashboard included total hours worked by officers within relevant periods and the ability to break down hours indicating when it was caused by report-writing and calls that came toward the end of the officers' shifts. The Bureau could not develop reports about sergeants who authorized extraordinary amounts of overtime because shift scheduling is performed collectively by all sergeants assigned to a shift. However, the Bureau developed a report to show which shifts had extra leave and overtime. It also plans to develop a report about overtime used to backfill discretionary training after it creates a way to track it. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau limit the number of overtime hours an officer could work. This recommendation should be addressed in ongoing contract negotiations with the Portland Police Association. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau revise and document the approval process for off-duty work so that the Chief's Office conducts the primary review of contracts instead of precinct commanders or the Portland Police Association. The change was intended to ensure consistency and that contracts met Bureau standards. The Assistant Chief of Operations reviewed all secondary employment contracts starting in September 2019. The Bureau said the new procedure would be included in a pending update to the secondary employment directive. The Bureau does not plan to revise this directive until contract negotiations with the Portland Police Association have concluded. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau track contracts that were not approved and record the reason why. The Bureau didn't yet have a policy for tracking denied contracts but said that the new secondary employment directive would include one. The Bureau provided an example of a contract that had been denied. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
Implemented Recommendation Details
We recommended that the training database be upgraded to include query capabilities for training that does not fit neatly into State and Police Bureau-mandated training or for classes not directly developed by the Training Division. The training database can now be queried for other trainings besides State and Police Bureau-mandated trainings as well as for trainings not developed by the Training Division. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended providing additional refresher training on officer responsibilities to procure medical care for a subject who is injured. The Bureau provided more medically-focused training than in the past. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended the Bureau provide training on not using profane language, demeaning labels, and making inappropriate comments. Although there is no training solely focused on avoiding profanity, demeaning labels, and inappropriate comments, the Bureau now provides training on Procedural Justice, which includes the concept of engaging people respectfully. The Bureau also provides Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement training, which teaches officers to intervene if another officer is engaging in harmful behavior toward members of the public. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended providing additional refresher training on less lethal weapon ammunition storage. The recommendation is no longer relevant. The Bureau changed to a different less lethal launcher which cannot be loaded with lethal ammunition, making the problem the recommendation was meant to address something that can no longer happen. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended the Bureau provide In-Service use-of-force training that is more focused on lessons to be learned from actual cases as well as Bureau policy. The Bureau is using more real-world examples and Bureau policy for use-of-force in-service training than in the past. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended instituting the Training Division as a key player in the feedback loop when policy changes and effects are evaluated. The policy development team had a better process to get information from the Training Division and a bigger staff to do so. The Training Division was included in the recent directive updating process. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended improved internal procedures for checking out weapons from armories and make them consistent across precincts. The Bureau improved the relevant directive and also updated precinct-specific standard operating procedures to make them consistent with each other. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended developing a procedure, or improving supervisory oversight, to ensure that supervisors and dispatch operators are aware of the weapons each officer is carrying into the field for each shift. The standard operating procedure was changed to spell out supervisor requirements for this oversight. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended making changes to the manner in which the Training Division conducts analyses for use-of-force reviews which incorporate the recommendations made in the October 2012 Auditors Report. The Bureau modified the relevant operating procedures to satisfy this recommendation. (Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved)
We recommended reviewing current practices for creating the most active list against legal requirements. The Bureau said it discontinued the most active list. (Gang Crime Investigations: Lack of accountability and transparency reduced the community's trust in police)
We recommended the Police Bureau regularly analyze and publish demographic data regarding Gang Enforcement Team traffic stops. The Police Bureau analyzed the demographics of people stopped by Gang Enforcement officers in 2016 and 2017. The Bureau reported that 61 percent of people in 2016 and 56 percent in 2017 were Black. The Bureau compared the demographics of people stopped to the demographics of gang crime victims. This benchmark showed that the percentage of Black people stopped was below the percentage of Black people that the Bureau considered as victims of gang crime (71 percent in 2016 and 63 percent in 2017). This comparison differs from those in our audit, which compared the demographics of those stopped to the demographics of people injured in traffic crashes and crime victims. A good benchmark reflects who's at risk of being stopped, assuming no bias. We encourage the Bureau to include these comparisons in its analyses. The Bureau committed to including stops data for the Gun Violence Reduction Team in future reports. (Gang Enforcement Patrol: The Police Bureau must show that traffic stops are effective)
We recommended that the Bureau report publicly on contracts approved, hours worked, and finances. The Bureau began posting information on secondary employment contracts on its website, but the report only included new contracts and will be incomplete until all previous contracts expire. The information can be viewed online. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau improve oversight of officers working secondary employment to ensure compliance with labor agreement requirements. The Bureau said that staff would review the internal overtime dashboard for compliance. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau consult with its equity manager and consider the equity effects involved in proposed secondary employment contracts. The Bureau finalized its equity lens and said the Assistant Chief for Operations uses it when considering contracts for approval. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau create a rationale for secondary employment overhead charges that include the cost of payroll processing and billing to organizations that use off-duty officers. The Bureau developed a model to calculate the full cost of secondary employment and said it would phase in customer price increases over the next four to five years. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
We recommended that the Bureau track the name of organizations that use off-duty officers or an identification number in the system officers used to record secondary employment overtime or payroll to ensure that all hours worked could be traced back to a specific contract. The Bureau created tracking numbers in its accounting system for all new contracts. (Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use)
Pending Recommendation Details
The Bureau should adopt a directive related to investigating First Amendment activity that provides guidance for the appropriate collection of information to protect people’s civil rights. (Police Intelligence-Gathering and Surveillance: Better management needed to protect civil rights)
The Bureau should create a procedure that limits access to sensitive information and promotes compliance with state law about collecting and maintaining political, religious, and social information that is not associated with criminal activity. (Police Intelligence-Gathering and Surveillance: Better management needed to protect civil rights)
The Bureau should adopt a technology directive that includes Council authorization of surveillance technology, advice from a privacy commission, and requirements for policies and reporting. (Police Intelligence-Gathering and Surveillance: Better management needed to protect civil rights)
The Bureau should add to the social media directive guidance for its use for investigations and a requirement to document the law enforcement purpose for searching individuals and groups. (Police Intelligence-Gathering and Surveillance: Better management needed to protect civil rights)
The Bureau should publish public reports on the Bureau’s use of surveillance technology to ease the public’s concerns about inappropriate intelligence-gathering and how devices are managed to prevent it. (Police Intelligence-Gathering and Surveillance: Better management needed to protect civil rights)
Data Notes
At the end of every audit report, we issue a series of recommendations intended to make programs work even better. This report includes the status of Bureau recommendations since 2018, which was the beginning of our new follow-up process. We prepared it with a few audiences in mind:
- City Council can use it to identify bureaus that may need additional resources or support in order to implement recommendations.
- Bureau directors can use it to assess bureau performance and to determine if any changes in policy or procedure are necessary.
- Bureau management and staff can use it to track recommendation status across audits to develop work plans and priorities.
- General public can use it to monitor the status of recommendations related to topics of interest and to compare performance across bureaus.
This report includes recommendation status as of December 31, 2022.
Translated reports
Most reports are available in four languages: Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Russian. We are translating new reports as they’re released, but older reports may not be available in a language other than English. If you would like to request a translated version of a report, please contact KC Jones.
Links
- Police Training Division: Progress made, but evaluating impacts on officer performance must be improved
- Gang Crime Investigations: Lack of accountability and transparency reduced the community's trust in police
- Gang Enforcement Patrol: The Police Bureau must show that traffic stops are effective
- Police Overtime: Management is lax despite high overtime use
- Report Link https://www.portlandoregon.gov/auditservices/article/743069
- Follow-up Link http://www.portland.gov/year2policeOT
- Police Intelligence-Gathering and Surveillance: Better management needed to protect civil rights