An illustration of a burning Multnomah County Justice Center and a secretive abbreviation are among the content of a law enforcement challenge coin now being reviewed by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office Professional Standards Unit.
Several 2020 Portland protest challenge coins were located in a law enforcement challenge coin Facebook group infiltrated by a group of local activists. The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office-specific coin design can be sourced to Daniel Szarowski, a corrections deputy for MCSO, activists believe.
Challenge coins are commemorative medallions popular among law enforcement, often referencing particular events, agencies or units within agencies. While some agencies issue them in an official capacity, including MCSO, private retailers also make coins at the request of individuals independent of an agency.
The sheriff’s office denies commissioning the coin.
Facebook messages obtained by Street Roots show a Facebook account that appears to belong to Szarowski communicating with an activist posing as a potential trade partner. In the correspondence, the account that appears to belong to Szarowski takes credit for the design and says he is with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. While the account has pictures of Szarowski and the first name listed on the profile is “Daniel,” the displayed last name is not Szarowski. However, the displayed last name is consistent with the first name of another member of Szarowski’s family, a Street Roots investigation found.
Additionally, at least one photo posted to the account had comments from multiple people with the last name Szarowski.
Szarowski declined to comment on the coin and the sheriff’s office does not have information to confirm who made the coin, according to Chris Liedle, MCSO public information officer. Liedle said the coin has now been referred to the Professional Standards Unit after Street Roots contacted the sheriff’s office for comment and provided photos of the coin. The photos provided to MCSO for comment were initially sent from the Facebook account appearing to belong to Szarowski to the local activist posing as a potential trade partner.
Challenge coins, while a longstanding tradition in law enforcement, have faced scrutiny in recent years by critics who say the coins often glorify police brutality and a warrior mentality.
The coin in question is emblazoned with an illustration of the Justice Center engulfed in flames on one side, encircled by the phrases “this we’ll defend,” and “remember the Alamo.”
On the reverse side, the coin includes an insignia of an eagle over an American flag with a lightning bolt reading “CERT,” a reference to the Corrections Emergency Response Team which engaged in crowd control during the 2020 racial justice protests at the Justice Center. Around the eagle insignia are the words “Multnomah County Sheriff,” and a Latin phrase translating to “always ready.” The center image is surrounded by the abbreviation for the Multnomah County Detention Center and the date May 29, 2020 — the day protesters broke into the Justice Center and set several fires in an office.
The coin also includes the inscribed abbreviation “NPNBW.” Street Roots obtained copies of communications between an activist posing as an interested trader, and someone offering the MCSO Justice Center coin online for trade. In the message, the person with the coins, whose display name appears to be a pseudonym, said “NPNBW” stands for a phrase containing profanity.
Street Roots found the abbreviation was previously published in “Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence,” a book written by former Multnomah County corrections sergeant turned writer and martial arts instructor, Rory Miller. Miller’s author biography on Amazon says he was a CERT leader for six years.
When reached by phone, Miller told Street Roots he came up with the abbreviated phrase for CERT members, but said the abbreviation does not stand for anything profane. Miller declined to say what it stood for, as only people who complete a mission with CERT are allowed to know, but said the phrase has a positive meaning and promotes team building.
M Quinn, a self-described transparency researcher with the group of activists that infiltrated the Facebook group, said the coins exemplify a feeling of impunity among law enforcement.
“The law enforcement response to protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death was nothing short of controversial, with blatantly excessive use of force and misconduct,” Quinn told Street Roots. “These challenge coins are souvenirs for those who were involved, and as we can see, they’re proud to show them off among one another. These officers clearly don’t feel remorse or fear oversight and the coins are a prime example of that. How should someone expect law enforcement to ‘protect and serve’ when they’ve essentially made themselves trophies for misconduct?”
Liedle said MCSO does not endorse any challenge coins produced independently by employees, though there are no rules against personnel creating their own coins. Current rules only determine the appearance of coins commissioned by the sheriff’s office for the purpose of awarding personnel.
MCSO regulations state: “The Sheriff may authorize awarding a commemorative coin as part of any current award or may award a coin for a specific reason not related to a current award. Commemorative coins are gold in color with a green enamel border on both sides of the coin. Commemorative coins shall be engraved with the Sheriff’s star and motto on one side and shall have a blank reverse side that shall be engraved with the members name, date and award for which it is presented.”
While MCSO does not have any rules against personnel creating their own challenge coins, Liedle said new rules are in the works.
“The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has concern for any products containing vulgar, offensive, and inappropriate language or images,” Liedle told Street Roots on April 13. “The Sheriff’s Office is developing a policy to address production of any items containing references to Multnomah County property, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, the position of the Sheriff, etc. The policy will address that any such item shall be reviewed and approved by the Sheriff.”
Regardless of current rules, Liedle said the coin may not align with the values of the sheriff’s office.
“Specifically, to this coin, if this challenge coin contains vulgar, offensive, and inappropriate language or images, it does not align with the mission, vision, or values of the Sheriff’s Office,” Liedle said. “The executive office was not aware of the language on the coin. We are also interested in what the abbreviation (NPNBW) means and have referred the content of the coin to the Professional Standards Unit, which will determine if any violations to policy exist.”
Electronic paper trail
Public Venmo transactions between July 29, 2020 and April 16, 2021 reviewed by Street Roots indicate MCSO personnel creating their own challenge coins may be far from a rare occurrence.
A list of public Venmo transactions provided to Street Roots by the same group of activists that located the coin showed transactions between 10 Venmo accounts with the same names as current or former Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office personnel referencing “coins,” “challenge coins” or including an emoji of a coin between July 29, 2020 and April 16, 2021. A Street Roots investigation confirmed the initial 10 names and transactions.
Street Roots also found six additional Venmo accounts with names matching Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training records for current or former MCSO personnel engaging in similar transactions referencing “coins,” “challenge coins” or including an emoji of a coin between July 29, 2020 and April 16, 2021. Other public transactions including the 16 accounts indicated the accountholders were indeed MCSO personnel, including references to MCSO events.
Liedle said none of the 15 personnel identified in Venmo transactions and subsequently provided to MCSO for comment were corrections personnel during the protests and that none were assigned to the CERT. One MCSO member told Street Roots he purchased a different challenge coin relating to river patrol via Venmo. Street Roots was able to confirm the MCSO member was not in the corrections division and was therefore not included in the list Street Roots provided to MCSO.
It remains unclear what coins were being purchased via Venmo, as the transaction notes do not specify which coin was purchased. However, three Venmo transaction notes reference “RRT Coins.” It remains unclear if “RRT” is referencing the CERT, a form of rapid response team, the now-disbanded Portland Police Rapid Response Team (commonly referred to as the RRT), or something else entirely.
When asked for information about the coins the transactions referred to, Liedle said MCSO did not have information on the transactions or what coins were being purchased via Venmo.
“The referenced members and their personal activity on Venmo, is not official MCSO business, and therefore, our office has no information to provide,” Liedle said.
Street Roots located publicly available phone numbers listed for 14 of the 16 current or former MCSO personnel and attempted to reach each one. At the time of publishing, one MCSO sergeant confirmed he purchased challenge coins via Venmo in the past, but denied purchasing the CERT coin and said he never policed protests or worked in corrections.
This story may be updated as more information becomes available. Piper McDaniel and Melanie Henshaw contributed reporting to this article.