Yesterday PPB chief Chuck Lovell held a half-hour press conference. Most of the media’s questions revolved around getting to the bottom of recent behavior of cops eroding community trust in the bureau. It was a display of little substance and plenty of thin platitudes. Below we’ve some relevant quotes.
On Brian Hunzeker, the disgraced former police union (PPA) president that resigned for a “serious mistake” in connection with the leak falsely implicating Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a hit-and-run incident:
- Lovell hasn’t spoken with Hunzeker about resignation as PPA president.
- Lovell does think Hunzeker will reveal the details through the course of an investigation “in the very near future.”
- Lovell does now know that the nature of the mistake was. Says it is “perilous to jump to conclusions about what happened… until we have some information from the investigation we won’t know exactly what happened.”
- Lovell agrees the public “has an interest in knowing what their police officers are doing, how they’re doing it, and if they do something wrong that they’re held accountable too.”
- “The incident is already under investigation. There’s various steps where interviews take place and things of that nature. So that process is happening.”
On the public perception that the PPB lacks transparency and public trust:
- Lovell says he tells his officers “all the time” that the expectation is they follow directives for release of “public records and things of that nature.”
- Lovell believes “investigations, and ways to investigate, and being willing to cooperate with civilian oversight and do things of that nature are ways to give transparency and help build trust.”
On responsibility for the recent wild political acts of police officers
- “I feel like where I sit as the police chief you’re ultimately responsible for the things that happen in your organization. But at the same time people need to take personal responsibility for their actions that they do as well.”
- “We have to also weigh the personal responsibility. But I think from where I sit it’s really about the overall, I wouldn’t say culture per se, but the overall kind of approach from top down making sure we have the appropriate expectations and systems in place to keep these things from happening in the future.”
We hear the typical refrain for it just being so tough for the PPB to do their job right as a whole:
- “This is a broader issue that we’re looking at or going to look here at PPB. We have good people that work here and go out every day and do good work. Is that to say that if you have a thousand people, I think we have just over 1,000 between our sworn and professional staff, and any organization of any size has that. But I think you have to look at it from an organizational point of view. And I think you have to be willing to look at it and ask that question and get answers to that question. Whether that’s some outside review or some internal review. But I think that’s a fair question. You have to be able to look critically at your organization and make sure you’re performing in a way that’s consistent with what the community expects, what the organization expects, and what’s in your directives and policies.”
- “I tell my officers that the expectation is that they all adhere to our directives and our policies about release of public records and things of that nature. I talk to them all the time about trust and how the things we do, even allegations of things or just questions about how things transpire, has an impact on how the public views us. And if we want to gain and build on public trust we have to doing things in a way that the public can trust in. And those are the kinds of things I tell my officers all the time.”
Other media coverage:
- The Oregonian: Portland police chief acknowledges his agency’s ‘self-inflicted’ damage to public’s trust, need for ‘critical look’ at police department culture
- Portland Mercury: Portland Police Chief Expects Former Union President Brian Hunzeker to Reveal in the “Very Near Future” What Led to His Abrupt Resignation
- KATU: PPB Chief Lovell speaks on gun violence, budget needs, bureau controversies
- Willamette Week: Portland Police Chief Expects Former Union President Brian Hunzeker to Reveal in the “Very Near Future” What Led to His Abrupt Resignation
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