On December 10, 2020, a new letter to the Commission was published, signed by more than 30 community groups, outlining the significant changes that need to be made to the contract. The effort is led by Unite Oregon. Portland Copwatch has released an annotated version of the letter that points to some issues in the contract. Contract negotiations between the City of Portland and the Portland Police Bureau will likely focus on mediation. After 150 days of negotiations, each party is legally entitled to request that the negotiations be subject to private mediation. The Portland Police Association made this request on June 14, 2021 and, therefore, no future bargaining sessions will be visible to the public. The police union and the U.S. Department of Justice have both proposed that Portland police use body cameras that can record police officers` encounters with members of the public. They suggest that body cameras provide important independent evidence needed to assess an officer`s actions during the investigation of misconduct. In addition, police officers should not be granted special rights in disciplinary interviews that are not extended to ordinary Portlandians during interrogations. Today marks the three-month period since the first mediation meeting on 28 July. Overall, the contract negotiation process has been lengthy: the parties are now approaching the second anniversary of the first meeting, which took place in February 2020 but was significantly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the police association`s proposal, the union would be the only organization outside the police office that would be allowed to freely examine the images. The union`s proposal also allowed officials to review the footage before writing reports, making statements or testifying, a common “though controversial” aspect of many cities — body camera programs. If the city and the police union try to avoid arbitration, they will have to agree on a number of issues. Among them, the city is trying to limit the external employment of civil servants. Currently, private companies like Apple can hire Portland police officers as collateral, a lucrative contract run by the police union. Portland hopes to limit external work to community and civic events within the city, such as .B. professional sporting events, and to put them under the control of the police office to better cope with the workload of officers. The contract between the city and the PPA has been a major obstacle to police accountability in the past. Now that negotiations are opening, we are taking the opportunity to change this in the following way: once the state has appointed a mediator, if a first mediation session is not successful, additional mediation sessions will be scheduled.
The city and the union must remain in mediation for at least 15 days. After that, they can continue to mediate or a party can take the next step by declaring an impasse and requiring the use of interest arbitration. When an impasse is declared, each party makes a final written offer and contract negotiations go to an arbitrator. The police union suggested that all officers with the rank of lieutenant and below should wear body cameras. The proposal states that the police office will be the record holder for all camera footage and that officers using lethal force will have the opportunity to watch videos of body cameras before the officer is questioned by investigators – a clause that City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and others in the city have strongly opposed. Raghavan is the acting executive director of Unite Oregon, a Portland-based organization dedicated to racial, social, economic and gender justice. Barbee, whose cousin was killed by police in California, is a member of the Pacific Northwest Family Circle, which brings together families from Oregon and Washington to advocate for justice for loved ones killed by police. The city also needs treaty amendments that strengthen the new Community Oversight Council, which voters passed last November and whose creation was supported by Senate Bill 621. The council must be able to investigate the misconduct of public officials without restrictions. “The city should understand the need to achieve the purpose of a new contract,” Turner said.
“Pressure produces progress and results.” On September 24, 2019, Portland Copwatch, Oregon Action and other groups involved in the campaign released a letter focused on issues that should be negotiated — but not included in the contract itself. Even if the new disciplinary guide is included in the contract, an arbitrator will only be bound by it if the original conclusion is upheld. This does not preclude an arbitrator from overturning the chief of police`s findings that a violation occurred, as was the case when an arbitrator overturned then-Portland Police Chief Mike Reese`s decision to fire Constable Ron Frashour for shooting and killing Aaron Campbell in 2010. The arbitrator reinstated Frashour with an additional payment. And in 2003, a referee reinstated Officer Scott McCollister with arrears after McCollister was suspended for shooting and killing Kendra James. The Portland Police contract must allow for more transparency and a new supervisory board to conduct investigations into official misconduct without restrictions, the authors write. The Portland Police Union and the City Attorney`s Office are on Sept. 29 for their seventh closed-door mediation session. October to negotiate a collective agreement. Information about past negotiations 2016 New Portland Police Contract: A Rush Job and a Hatchet Job Contract Fact Sheet 2016 Police in Portland are at a crossroads. The status quo allows officials to maim and kill community members without accountability and devastate families across Oregon. Agents who commit blatant abuses of power and harm our communities have yet to be held accountable for their actions.
While the policy contract is not the only barrier to accountability, it is extremely important. We need City Council and its bargaining team to reiterate the public`s demands for a fair, community-centered, and pro-responsible contract. Community demands • Letter to the city council setting out the demands of the contract • Annotated version of the letter • Second letter on the points that should be negotiated but should not be included in the contract • Annotated version of the second letter The two parties had not reached agreement on more than 33 articles in the union`s 68-article contract, of those who regulate management rights, disciplinary, dismissal and overtime complaint procedures and proposals on advertising compensation and a policy for body cameras. Portland police officers had a number of reasons why they thought the 2020 racial justice protests were among the largest and most enduring in the city`s history. The possible reasons for the mass protests are not mentioned as a long list of complaints against the office that date back decades. On the 11th. In September 2019, Oregon Action released a letter to the City Council outlining the demands for the contract, which was signed by approximately 30 organizations. A summary of the main points of the letter can be seen below. portlandor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/(S(mtwefjcpt1xj2kuq25bds3ee))/supporthome.aspx “Obviously, a police officer involved in intentional and sometimes even lazy malicious misconduct is misconduct,” Turner said. . .
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