The Portland Police Bureau announced Friday it is ending its ongoing practice of withholding the names of officers who use deadly force or are involved in in-custody deaths.
The bureau has withheld officer names since July, citing unspecified threats made against officers and concerns that their personal information was being made public.
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell speaks to the media after a Portland police officer shot and killed Alexander Tadros, 30, while assisting the Drug Enforcement Agency on Aug. 27, 2021 in Portland, Oregon.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
“The FBI launched an investigation into those security threats and requested PPB temporarily hold any release of officer names,” a PPB press release said. “The FBI has notified PPB that the investigation has concluded, allowing for the implementation of this policy change.”
A police bureau statement said Chief Chuck Lovell will issue an executive order updating bureau policies to require officer names be released within 15 days after a deadly force incident, absent a credible threat. The previous policy required names to be released within 24 hours.
“No matter the circumstances, a police use of deadly force incident has wide-reaching impact on the community member involved, that person’s family and friends, the wider community, and of course the PPB membership,” Lovell said in a statement. “We owe it to everyone to enact a fair policy that considers them all. I believe this policy change is reasonable and responsible.”
The bureau first announced it would not release officer names on July 29, two days after a member of the Focused Intervention Team shot and killed Aaron Stanton, 40, in front of his Southeast Portland home. In announcing an end to the opacity, the bureau confirmed Officer Joshua Dyk, who has worked at the Portland Police Bureau for four years, was the person who killed Stanton. Dyk is still on administrative leave.
The agency named officers Friday who fired their weapons in four other incidents since July and whose names were previously withheld.
Sgt. Charles Elam, Officer Amy Li and Officer Christopher Baten fired at Robert Connelly on Aug. 16 while trying to arrest him on outstanding warrants. Connelly was eventually taken into custody unharmed. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office takes all fatal police shootings to a grand jury but not all non-fatal shootings. District Attorney Mike Schmidt found the officers’ actions were not criminal. Elam and Li have returned to work. Baten resigned in September and now works for the Oregon Department of Justice.
Officer Jonah Gellman shot and injured Jeremy Rieck on Oct. 14 after Rieck was allegedly chasing people downtown with a knife. The District Attorney also found this shooting was not criminal. Gellman has returned to work.
On Nov. 7, officers responded to a call that an armed man, later identified as Antoine Young, was setting cars in Southeast Portland. Officers Erik Daniels, Joshua Howery and Mark Piombo fired at Young, injuring him. Young survived and was booked into Multnomah County jail a week later. The police bureau said Schmidt’s office is still reviewing the shooting and the officers are still on administrative leave.
Officer Christopher Sathoff shot Immanueal Jaquez Clark-Johnson on Nov. 19 after stopping him in the Reed neighborhood, believing he was associated with an armed robbery nearby. Clark-Johnson died in the days after the shooting. The shooting is still being reviewed by the district attorney’s office. Sathoff is on administrative leave.