The city of Portland is three months overdue from its previously stated starting date for a body camera pilot program for the Portland Police Bureau.

After finally agreeing that arming Portland police with body worn cameras is the right call in 2021, city attorneys and the city’s police union, the Portland Police Association (PPA), began meeting to hash out a policy to inform its first-ever body camera pilot program. That pilot was supposed to go into effect in September. However, since the PPA and city attorneys are still in disagreement over the policy’s details, the plan remains on hold as we enter the new year. 

The delay has begun to get under the skin of the feds. You may recall that the City of Portland is beholden to a settlement agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over the way its police disproportionately use force against people with a mental illness. Adopting a body camera plan is one of the requirements of that agreement. In a November meeting, the federal judge assigned to oversee the progress of settlement expressed frustration with the city for not having a plan in place yet. Further delay may eventually lead to the courts’ intervention.

Months since the city began an internal investigation into a right-wing meme being shared in a PPB training presentation: 15 

Findings from that investigation shared with the public: none

In January, it was made public that the city of Portland had begun investigating the use of an anti-protester meme tucked into a training slideshow created by someone within the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). The city pledged to investigate how the meme, which has its origins in far-right internet circles, made its way into an official training slideshow (which also contained a number of racist and anti-democratic tropes). That internal investigation allegedly began in September 2021 and continues to this day.

The delay in the city’s conclusion of this investigation is yet another issue irking the federal judge involved in the DOJ settlement. “I was expecting greater transparency by now,” said US District Court Judge Michael Simon in a November court hearing.

PPB withheld the name of the officers responsible for shooting a member of the public on five occasions. 

Citing fear of doxxing, the PPB began withholding the names of officers who use deadly force in July. While PPB policy requires the bureau to release officers’ names within 24 hours after they use deadly force, bureau leaders pointed to a loophole allowing the names to be kept secret if there was a “credible security threat.” PPB said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was tapped to investigate these alleged threats. 

After officers shot members of the public on five different occasions, PPB Chief Chuck Lovell announced that he was changing the 24-hour rule. Instead, Lovell said, the bureau would have up to 15 days to share the names of any officers who used deadly force (barring a security threat, of course). Upon making this December policy change, PPB finally released all the names of officers involved in the five previous shootings. The public has yet to receive any update on the FBI investigation.