Add Identification of Law Enforcement Officers Code to prohibit facial covering, require badge visibility, and require identity verification for individuals conducting law enforcement activities (add Code Chapter 23.30)

The City of Portland ordains.

Section 1. The Council finds:

1. During the first several months of 2025, thousands of masked individuals wearing paramilitary gear and claiming to be federal agents have engaged in purported immigration enforcement actions across the country, including in Portland.
2. Immigration enforcement sweeps in workplaces, schools, and homes have created an environment of profound fear. Communities are unsure of the legitimacy of individuals claiming to be enforcement officers while wearing facial coverings, failing to provide identification, publicly detaining people and placing them into unmarked vehicles, and subsequently removing them without explanation; tactics historically associated with secret police units in authoritarian regimes.
3. When communities can visually tell the difference between local and federal law enforcement officers, it thwarts impersonators who pose as local and federal agents, violating the law, causing harm, and imposing terror on their victims.
4. There is no current policy requiring officers to show their faces nor prohibiting officers from obscuring their faces with facial coverings.
5. The inability to identify an officer and the agency they represent threatens the legitimacy of lawful enforcement. Transparency and accountability are essential to maintain public trust. Unlike impersonators, legitimate law enforcement officers are public servants and can be held accountable for their actions.
6. Immigration enforcement officers should be visibly identifiable during any civil immigration enforcement activities when they may directly engage members of the public or when members of the public are present, including actions involving civil and criminal authority, except when such work is necessarily undercover.
7. Federal, State, and Local Law Enforcement laws and directives require personnel responding to or supporting the response to a civil disturbance to visibly display identifying information, including the individual's name or a unique personal identifier, as well as the name of the federal agency or organization by which the individual is employed, including but not limited to ORS 181A.702, ORS 181A.704 and PPB Directive 312.50 Identification..
8. Under PPB Directives 0635.10, officers performing crowd management duties are prohibited from intentionally obscuring this identifying information and are required to ensure that the information is clearly visible. Additionally, when practical, safe, and tactically feasible, members are expected to provide their name and identification number, or their assigned unique identifier, upon request by a member of the public, and may do so by offering a Bureau-issued business card in lieu of verbally providing the information.
9. In 2020, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon requested that the Department of Homeland Security investigate numerous reports of masked federal agents wearing tactical or military-style gear who were arresting protesters in Portland while refusing to identify themselves.
10. Beginning in January 2021 with HR 6395, Law Enforcement and members of the Armed Forces were required to display clearly visible identifying information whenever engaged in crowd control, riot control, or arrest or detainment of individuals engaged in an act of civil disobedience, demonstration, or protest, except when undercover.
11. In November 2025, the FBI warned of criminal ICE Impersonators on the rise, posing as immigration officials to commit crimes and kidnap innocent people. Confirmed cases have been in California, Colorado, Florida, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and more. Also in November 2025, in Cottage Grove, Oregon, a resident mistakenly confused an ICE agent for the local police agency she trusted, before ICE ripped her from her car and threw her to the ground.
12. Portland City Council recognizes the efforts of Members of Oregon's Congressional delegation for their efforts to promote transparency, accountability, and community safety in the operations of federal law enforcement.
13. When masks are worn, it has significant implications for public perception, officer-community interactions, and accountability. Whether intended or not, members of the public may experience fear or intimidation when approached by officers whose faces are obscured. This perception can heighten defensive behaviors and unnecessarily escalate situations.
14. The visibility of an officer's face is vital for promoting transparency, facilitating communication, and building trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. Facial coverings limit the visibility of facial expressions, which are essential components of nonverbal communication. In high-stress or emotionally charged interactions, the inability to read an officer's expression may lead to misinterpretation of tone or intent, increasing the risk of conflict escalation.
15. The use of facial coverings by law enforcement should not obscure officer identity or hinder accountability, nor should those coverings be used in a manner that enables or conceals discriminatory or unlawful conduct.
16. In 2017, the City of Portland officially declared itself a Sanctuary City, where all people belong, no matter where they are born, what language they speak, their race, ethnicity, or immigration status. In 2025, City Council unanimously codified Sanctuary City Status, adding additional requirements for City staff training, signage at City facilities indicating public or private spaces, and transparency in the form of Freedom of Information Act requests.
17. The City of Portland is committed to protecting and supporting the immigrants who contribute so much to the health, prosperity, and vibrancy of our city.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:

1. Add City Code Chapter 23.30 as shown in Exhibit A.
2. PPB to post publicly this new identification policy as written, where all officers can view and have access to see. The policy shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
   1. A purpose statement affirming the agency's commitment to transparency, accountability, and public trust,
   2. Restricting the use of facial coverings to specific, clearly defined, and limited health circumstances. That generalized and undifferentiated fear and apprehension about officer safety shall not be sufficient to justify the use of facial coverings.
3. City Code Chapter 23.30 only applies to members of affected bargaining units upon compliance with any legal obligations the City may have under the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act.
4. The Bureau of Human Resources to provide notice to all potentially affected bargaining units to allow for an opportunity to demand to bargain any mandatory subjects of bargaining that may exist as a result of this code change, and for the City to then engage in good faith bargaining, as may be required by law, including the obligation to be open to proposals that change the code, and to return to Council with any proposed amendments to code resulting from bargaining.