Portland Police Bureau, at 1111 Southwest 2nd. Ave., Portland, Ore., July, 2023.
Caden Perry / OPB
A years-long effort to reform the Portland Police Bureau turned to a new chapter Wednesday after a federal judge appointed an official court monitor.
The appointment means an outside law firm will be tasked with gauging how well the police department is complying with a decade-old federal settlement agreement to prevent police abuses.
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon appointed the firm MPS & Associates at the end of a nearly five-hour hearing. The firm is led by Mark Smith, who previously served as a similar outside inspector for the Los Angeles Police Department.
While it remains to be seen how effective the monitor will be, some advocacy groups at the hearing said they were cautiously optimistic the appointment could spur changes they want to see at the police department.
“It’s a significant shift,” said Ashlee Albies, of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform. “It’s important for folks who advocate for community oversight of police.”
The settlement dates back to 2012, when the U.S. Department of Justice found that Portland officers had a pattern of using excessive force against people with behavioral health issues.
The hearing Wednesday offered a glimpse into some of the contentious topics the new monitor will be dealing with, such as policies around body-worn cameras and the city’s behavioral health first-response team, Portland Street Response.
MPS & Associates will offer clearer insight into how they will wade into those topics after the firm officially starts on July 1. Among its first tasks will be presenting a detailed plan on how it will grade the city’s and police department’s compliance with the settlement.
Smith declined to talk to OPB for this story.
During the hearing, many advocates encouraged Smith and his team to learn the nuances of Portland. Some speakers raised concerns that the monitor included very few people who have worked closely with the city.
Still, many lauded the fact that Smith’s team included Antoinette Edwards, former director of Portland’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention.
After the hearing, Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Alliance described the appointment as the culmination of a “long, protracted, painful, expensive process.”
He said he was hopeful it would lead to change because many cities with consent decrees have court monitors. Still, he kept his expectations in check.
“We’ve gone back to what every other city in America has, which is a court monitor,” he said. “People who are steeped in police oversight. Moving recalcitrant police departments and cities forward. Now, we have that.”
Officials with the Justice Department and the city of Portland both spoke positively about the appointment. Deputy City Attorney Heidi Brown, in her remarks at the hearing, called it a “momentous occasion.”