Portland police share security measures and preparation for possible civil unrest on election day and after

This week, a coalition of over 100 elected officials, arts organizations, labor unions and chambers of commerce signed a letter urging calm and “thoughtful civic engagement” on election day, and to preserve the “hard-won but still fragile progress” in Downtown Portland.

Amid rising concerns about possible civil unrest next week, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said there would be increased police presence, with officers canceling days off and working 12-hour shifts. A special unit of officers under the recently reconstituted Rapid Response Team will also be deployed for crowd control. Portland Police Chief Bob Day joins us to share more details about the agency’s preparedness for election day, what lessons it learned from its response to the 2020 racial justice protests and an update on what the police know about the suspected arsonist who placed incendiary devices into ballot boxes in Portland and Vancouver recently.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. This week, more than 100 elected officials, arts organizations, labor unions and business groups signed a letter urging calm and “thoughtful civic engagement” on election day, to preserve what they called “hard-won but still fragile progress” in Downtown Portland. Portland police are hoping for the same, but they are preparing for worse. All sworn officers will be working 12-hour shifts starting on election day. Days off are canceled, and a special unit of officers under the recently reconstituted Rapid Response Team will be available for crowd control. Portland Police Chief Bob Day joins us now with more details. Good to have you back on the show.

Bob Day: Thanks, Dave. Good afternoon.

Miller: I want to start with the news from this week that we’ve already seen about ballot box problems. On Wednesday, the bureau released more information about the suspect in the investigation into the incendiary devices in drop boxes both in Multnomah and Clark counties. He is believed to be a white male between 30 and 40 years old, with thin to medium build, a thin face, and short hair or bald. What more can you tell us right now about the status of this investigation?

Day: Well, in terms of suspect description, vehicle description, we’ve given out what we have. You articulated that well, thank you. But what I can say is we’re actively following up on all leads. We’re working closely with our federal partners and, of course, Vancouver and folks across the river. So this is a whole regional effort to try and bring this guy into custody as soon as possible.

Miller: That’s enough information. I mean, including the make and description of the suspect’s car. I think it was an early 2000s Volvo, dark color. It really seems to me that there’s a good chance that somebody in the Portland area knows who this person is. Have you gotten good tips?

Day: Yeah, we are receiving information daily, and I would agree that there’s a high likelihood that he’s known to someone and that’s why we’ve been as transparent as we had. You know, we always have to balance the needs of an investigation with the risk for the community and we felt strongly that we needed to share as much as possible, as quickly as possible. And that’s why we released the information to the level of detail that we have.

Miller: So that is just specifically about the investigation. More broadly, what will the bureau be doing around voting security or voter security?

Day: The county election office is managed and run by Multnomah County, but we work very closely with them, with their election office, with the Sheriff’s Department and of course, with the District Attorney’s Office, which are all Multnomah County-based organizations. So going into this election cycle, what I most encouraged about is – what you touched on in the opening – the regional unified approach that we’re taking to all matters associated with the election. Specific to the election boxes and election ballot county locations, in conjunction with the sheriff’s office and the police bureau, we’re going to have both visible patrols … as well as there are restrictions, rightly so, around the appropriate police response and police presence around our election systems. So we’re also [inaudible] legal advisors to make sure that it’s not seen as, you know, any type of interference in the election process. So we’re working closely to make sure we’re within the mounds of the laws, but also providing that safe, secure and equitable election process.

Miller: Let’s turn to election day and the days that are going to follow. Can you give us a sense for the kinds of scenarios that you have been thinking about, gaming out, preparing for?

Day: Well, I mean, the primary one that I’ve been thinking about is how Portland shows up and demonstrates a robust expression of their First Amendment rights, whether it’s an agreement or disagreement with the outcomes of the election or the issues of the day, but we do so in a manner that’s peaceful and respectful. And we are a different story than we have been in years past. So that’s the best-case scenario, where we’re not having a conversation about arrests, or police, or vandalism, or crime, but we’re talking about what this process represents to our democracy.

We have 118 people, roughly, that have run for office in the city of Portland this cycle. And they should be honored and recognized for their campaigns, and their hard work, and for all of our participation. Ultimately, though, we have to recognize that there could be those that want to do harm or disruption. And we’ve made it clear for the last year that there is a definite distinction between the expression of our First Amendment rights and criminal behavior. And just because you’re participating in an event that could be characterized as a free speech event does not provide anonymity or absolve you of the responsibility to continue to adhere to the laws.

So we will be intentionally looking for provocateurs and disruptors, agitators, those that are not willing to peacefully engage and doing our best to interrupt that behavior, up to and including arrest and charging them through the criminal justice system.

Miller: What lessons did you personally take away from the 100-plus nights of protests in Portland in the summer of 2020?

Day: I actually had retired in 2019, but I was still engaged with the city in 2020. And of course, spent the last two years and then the last 14 months with the police bureau learning. A couple of things: one, is that we’ve learned that in terms of preparation, we need to be more working in conjunction with our partners. And I’m talking about from a city level, to a regional level, to a state level. And that’s happening this time around. The entire city of Portland, under the mayor’s leadership, under city council’s direction and then our city administrator, Michael Jordan, is filling that role.

We are unified as a city, with all bureaus pointing towards the state election cycle. Then we’ve also increased our memorandums of agreements and letters of understanding with local law enforcement and regional partners. And then the governor has been very intentional in her support and advocacy as well. We’ll be working with the state police. So in 2020, Portland was left on an island. The Portland Police Bureau was really on an island, trying to manage it on their own. This year, I’m grateful for the unified support.

And of course, most importantly – and it was evident in the press conference on Wednesday – is the community support. The number of both neighborhood associations, activist groups, community leaders, business associations that also are calling for a safe election is really pivotable. So these are distinctly different times for us, both as an agency and as a community.

Miller: So to drill down into this issue of partnerships with other local or perhaps state law enforcement agencies, what specific roles will they be playing, whether we’re looking at other city police departments, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office or state police? Do they have clear and established roles right now in the case of, say, a riot on Wednesday?

Day: Yeah. So from a tactical, on-the-ground approach, if we have a public order event that requires interdiction by foreign officers, it will be the Portland Police Bureau and state police. But the partnerships we share with our neighboring agencies such as the Sheriff’s Office, and the Port of Portland, and Gresham and others will allow us to collapse all PPB resources to be the primary responders to these events. And then the additional outside agency will be able to facilitate and respond to the emergency calls for service in the rest of the city. That’s what makes these events even increasingly more difficult, is we can’t just focus on a large crowd in one part of the city and ignore the other 100 square miles or plus that [inaudible].

So I’m grateful for our neighboring partners that have said they will come in and make sure that emergency calls – certainly calls that are not at that level will have to wait – will have a response to them, and we will have a Portland Police Bureau commander be a liaison to those agencies. But in terms of actual public order response, it will be Portland Police Bureau and state police, which is what we did in 2020. We worked very closely with Superintendent Codding. We trained with them. We share similar beliefs, and attitudes, and values around public order response. So the superintendent and I, and the governor and the mayor are all in alignment. That’s the best to put forward in those events.

Miller: Let me make sure I understood, in terms of sort of regional staffing partnerships– what you were saying there. Let’s say there is some serious event in Downtown Portland that involves a significant number of Portland police. Is the idea that if there is a 911 call in East Portland, say, about an armed robbery, that maybe Gresham police would then respond to that because Portland police, many of them would be otherwise occupied?

Day: Right. So whether it was East Portland … and potentially that 911 call would be handled by an aggressive officer, or a Multnomah County sheriff’s deputy, or a port officer. Our certification as police officers in Oregon allows us authority in the entire state. So, although we are working in the city of Portland, the certification is statewide. So Portland police officers could go work in Salem tomorrow and still be Portland police officers. So we’re going to be having these neighboring jurisdictions. Once again, it’ll only be for life safety emergency type calls, if needed. But that allows us to literally utilize every single Portland police officer in the focus of crowd response, which is what we have been training and preparing for diligently over the last year.

Miller: So we’ve been talking here about state and local law enforcement partnerships, but as probably most people listening to us now will remember, it was federal law enforcement that caused some of the most serious issues for many Portlanders four years ago. What kinds of conversations have you had with federal law enforcement agencies in the last six months or so?

Day: Well, there’s two primary agencies that we interact with on a regular basis. One is the Federal Protective Service. They’re a uniformed branch of law enforcement. They are highly visible downtown. There are several federal buildings, for example, the Gus Solomon building, and other buildings that are [inaudible] that are under their jurisdictions. So they’re visible, around, uniformed and we work very closely with them, but they’re very limited and very small in footprint. But we are in conjunction talking with them about their facilities and making sure there’s facility security plans for them.

And then we have a long-standing history of working with our partners at the FBI, which will not be participating in a patrol response – that’s not their lane. But we do speak with them regularly, gathering and sharing intelligence information. As I mentioned, this case on the election boxes, we’re working closely with their investigators. So we’re in touch with them as well. The U.S. Marshals and other institutions certainly exist in the city of Portland. But at this time, I have no expectation, and have not even indicated or reached out that there will be a need, or request, or desire to have their participation in public order events.

I’m confident that the city of Portland, and the state police, and the assistance of our partners that we can manage whatever it is that we have to face next week or even in the coming weeks. We’re not just focused on Monday or Tuesday. The Police Bureau this year, really over the last year, has prepared itself better for sustained incidents if they occur. I want to say that with the caveat that we don’t have a lot of indications right now of a lot of problems next week. There’s obviously social media and some things that are being broadcast now for various demonstrations, for a variety of causes. But we’re not doing this in anticipation or expectation that there will be an issue. But I’m firmly committed to the safety and security of our community, and of this election process so we have to do everything we can to be in the best position possible.

Miller: I don’t mean to jeopardize operational security here, but I am curious about the kind of intelligence apparatus that you have within the PPB that lets you say that you’re not particularly worried now about specific events. What kinds of investigations or intelligence gathering can you do that backs that up?

Day: Yeah, that’s a great question and it’s totally reasonable. Thank you for asking. So, first of all, it starts on a national level. I was just recently at a conference in Boston with the Major Cities Chiefs Association which is the 80 largest police departments in the country. We’re connected through different lines of communication and sharing of information. And that’s obviously a starting point, just what is happening nationwide, what are various cities seeing, knowing that every community is different and every response is different, but still there’s a large sharing of information that way. And then of course, as I mentioned, regionally, we are talking to our partners.

From an intelligence gathering standpoint, much of what occurs today is in social media and that’s not a secret to anybody that the gathering, the information sharing is largely done through social media. And so that’s what we call open-source material, that is available to you or me as it is to our intelligence officers. And then there’s always the possibility of human intelligence. I’m not aware of the top of my head of the capabilities of that right now in the various partner agencies. But sometimes people want to provide us information, and we’re going to be responsive and act upon that information. So it sometimes comes across and talks about intelligence as if there’s a big secret out there. It’s more about engaging the community.

I would go back to your earlier comment about the person who attacked the election boxes. We find most of the time, and not just in these events, but in a lot of criminal behavior, most of the time somebody knows something, somebody knows somebody, somebody sees something, somebody hears something. Maybe they’re two or three removed, but they hear, oh, so and so’s planning this, or so and so’s doing this or going to this. And occasionally those people come forward or share that information. Of course, we act on it. So based upon all of those resources at this point, we don’t anticipate issues. But the caveat means, it’s limited in terms of what we can receive and what we can capture, and therefore, I cannot commit to Portland that next week there will not be significant unrest or violence.

Miller: Finally, before I say goodbye, I just want to go back to 2020 and the lessons from there. One of the things that many people will remember is there were a whole variety of people with very different intentions and tactics who were in the streets over the course of 100 days. So it’s hard to make big, general sweeping statements. But there were absolutely people who said, “I was protesting peacefully and I was pushed by police officers. I was given confusing, urgent demands to move in certain ways and then those were conflicted by other officers saying, ‘No go the other direction.’ I was caught in tear gas with no nowhere for me to go or pepper spray.”

Broadly, what directions are you giving your officers right now in terms of how and when to deploy different kinds of less lethal force?

Day: I don’t doubt that those events occurred. And we have definitely tried to be a learning organization regarding that, how to respond better. These are chaotic, difficult, complicated, complex and there’s going to be definitely times where maybe we missed the mark. But a couple of things that are happening: One, there’s been a lot of legislative changes since 2020, as well as city ordinances, important police bureau directives that restrict and dictate when we can use varying forms of less lethal force.

More importantly, the men and women, the police bureau have really dedicated themselves to extensive amounts of training, learning self-evaluation. We’ve looked at the independent report that was done on our tactics. We’ve adopted those recommendations. There were a lot of things that the Portland Police Bureau did very well in 2020, and I want to recognize the sacrifice and the work that a lot of those men and women did night after night – a truly unique situation.

But we’re committed to more of a stair-stepped approach this time. We have dialogue officers that are reaching out before the events even take place. In real-time, right now, we have bike squads, we have uniformed personnel. We’re going to be taking a much more layered approach, with an attempt to interdict and just discourage that kind of behavior before it rises to the level that requires a higher degree of force.

Miller: Bob Day, thanks very much. I appreciate your time today.

Day: All right, thanks. Take care.

Miller: Bob Day is the chief of the Portland Police Bureau.

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