We knew the fallout from the Portland Police Bureau’s “leakgate” wouldn’t die, and now there’s a new development; Mayor Ted Wheeler has released a letter demanding Brian Hunzker resign from his role on the board of the Fire & Police Disability & Retirement (FPD&R) bureau.
The US Department of Justice has filed a formal letter with the PPB including outrageous detail about abuse of force, coverups of officer misconduct, and the police union (PPS) blatantly flouting accountability rules (among other unconstitutional behavior). The DOJ has been trying for months to get the city and police to work toward fixing these issues, but that request has been denied, forcing the DOJ’s hand in this latest action.
Wow, we’ve made it to the end of the first week of the Honest Police Project on the web! At the end of every week we plan to roll together the week’s news in police integrity, accountability, honesty, and trustworthiness (read: the complete lack thereof). We will eventually allow you to get these as a email newsletter, so stay tuned for that. Now let’s get down to our weekly Police Beat.
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.
The latest update has arrived for this story that won’t easily die, and it goes against the will of Portland’s police union (PPA).
Yesterday it was announced that OIR, an independent police consulting group, has been contracted to investigate the politically-motivated leak falsely implicating City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a hit-and-run incident in SE Portland.
The Oregonian has published a summary of the semi-annual Police Review Board’s report; In addition to a few instances of officers negligently popping off their guns, one particular incident is raising eyebrows.
A few days ago on March 16th, 2021 Portland’s police union released a statement announcing the surprise resignation of their President, Brian Hunzeker. His resignation raises more questions than answers.