Federal justice officials, Portland police work to hammer out final ...

With a Friday deadline looming, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice and lawyers from the U.S. Attorney's office are continuing to hammer out with Portland police brass and city attorneys what reforms and policy changes will be made in response to the federal report last month that found Portland police use excessive force against people suffering from mental illness.

"We are just really in the heart of negotiations right now," Oregon's Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian Brown said Wednesday afternoon. "We're working our hardest to meet this Oct. 12th deadline."

Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who serves as police commissioner, had a two-and-a-half hour block of time reserved on his calendar Wednesday afternoon, specifically for meetings with police and the city attorney's office.

Adams Wednesday declined to comment if a final agreement would be reached by Friday, only saying, "Stay tuned."

On Sept. 13, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez announced in Portland that the federal justice department review found Portland police have engaged in a pattern and practice of using excessive force against people who suffer from or are perceived to suffer from mental illness.

Federal investigators concluded that the excessive force used by officers results from bureau "deficiencies in policy, training and supervision" that have been in place for a long time.

Last month, federal and city officials said they had come to a "preliminary " agreement on the reforms needed to address deficiencies with police use of force policies, crisis intervention training and officer accountability procedures. They said they would work to reach a final, more detailed agreement by Friday to address the deficiencies cited by federal investigators.

The final agreement is expected to be presented to the City Council for approval, and ultimately signed by a federal judge in U.S. District Court before the end of the year.

A federal justice investigator told community members dialed into a community conference call last week that the federal justice department will formally file a civil lawsuit against the city, but then voluntarily dismiss the suit from the court's active docket.? At the same time, the federal government and the city will sign the formal agreement on reforms to be adopted. The agreement will be legally enforceable, as it will remain under the court's jurisdiction.

Last month, federal and city officials said the proposed settlement between the Portland police and federal justice department would ensure: the city revises its use of force policies so officers have "necessary guidance" when encountering someone with mental illness or someone perceived to have a mental illness; revamp its Taser policies to focus on de-escalating encounters arising from welfare checks or low-level offense; expands its single Mobile Crisis Unit team, which pairs an officer with a Project Respond mental health expert, to provide 24-hour, 7-day-a-week coverage; and set up a Mental Health Triage Desk at the dispatch center to ensure mental health-related calls are properly dispatched to the appropriate agency.

Under the preliminary agreement, the city also agreed to work with community mental health providers to try to open a 24-hour secure drop-off, or walk-in center that will give officers more options when helping people with mental illness. The Police Bureau would actively use its Early Intervention System to track officers with many citizen complaints or use of force complaints to help curb problem behavior; and expedite internal affairs inquiries. And, a community group would be created to continually monitor the requested reforms.

--Maxine Bernstein

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Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/10/federal_justice_portland_polic.html

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