Court monitor: Portland police make strides in DOJ settlement, some areas need work

Portland police are largely in compliance with their longtime settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice on excessive use of force , but could do better to identify possible patterns of troubling behavior by officers, according to a new report by a court-appointed independent monitoring team .

The team is seeking public comment through June 2 on a draft of its first semi-annual report .

The nine-member monitoring group — called MPS & Associates — is led by Mark P. Smith , former inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon in May 2024 approved the team’s two-year appointment to oversee the city’s progress on the settlement, which he originally approved in 2014 after a federal investigation found Portland officers used excessive force against people with mental illness.

The agreement between the city and Justice Department called for widespread changes to police use-of-force and Taser policies, restructuring police crisis intervention services and quicker investigations of police misconduct allegations.

Portland’s settlement is much further along than many other policing consent decrees that other cities, such as Minneapolis and Louisville , have signed and that are now facing potential dismissal by the Trump administration. Minneapolis and Louisville reached consent decrees with the Justice Department in the final weeks of the Biden administration that have not yet been approved by a judge.

When the city of Portland negotiated its agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2012, no court monitor was assigned. The city instead hired a compliance officer and agreed to set up a community oversight board to assess its progress in adopting the required reforms. Only last year did the court appoint an independent monitor once the settlement was narrowed to remaining areas of concern, including use of force and training.

In MPS & Associates’ first report in Portland, the team questioned whether the Police Bureau’s Employee Information System – an early warning system designed to identify possible patterns of problem behavior before they get out of hand — is leading to meaningful interventions.

The team found that police made “at least some effort toward de-escalation” in nearly each use-of-force case the team reviewed, but it urged the Police Bureau to better document and explain the interactions and hold supervisors accountable for tracking the cases.

It’s not clear if the alerts or data analysis triggered follow-up discussions with officers or how the system identifies patterns of behavior warranting more attention, the team found.

“Although audit data is disaggregated by member, supervisor, and unit, the extent to which that information results in actual behavioral or supervisory changes is not always documented,” the report said.

Police performance reviews should be used to address officer conduct and oversight by supervisors, the team said.

The team praised emergency dispatchers for consistently triaging calls to an appropriate mental health provider when needed and found dispatchers were “largely successful” in identifying calls that didn’t warrant a response from the bureau’s Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team officers or Portland Street Response.

The team has spent about $1 million in its first year of review, according to court documents.

Also on its two-year agenda is monitoring the rollout of body-worn cameras to all police and community calls for the city to expand the Portland Street Response program that sends mental health professionals and emergency medical technicians to assist people in crisis on the streets instead of armed police.

The team also will evaluate the creation of the voter-approved independent community oversight board for police.

The independent team is scheduled to attend a community town hall event at McMenamins Kennedy School’s Mina Parsons Room next Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Members of the public who wish to comment on the team’s report can send their remarks to info@portlandpolicemonitor.com .

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com , follow her on X @maxoregonian , on Bluesky @maxbernstein.bsky.social or on LinkedIn .

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