Mayor Tom Potter’s office is reviewing five applications from consultants to assess the effectiveness of the Office of Independent Police Review Division, or IPR.
The mayor’s office is seeking a consultant to fulfill a City Council promise to review the police oversight system one year after it was created. That was five years ago.
In May, the city sent out a request for proposals, which were due June 4. The city expects to select a consultant from the five proposals by June 26. This City Council has set aside $60,000 for the review.
The IPR was established in June 2001 to replace PIIAC, Portland's former police oversight system, a move that shifted the emphasis on oversight toward the police bureaus’ Internal Affairs Division and away from citizen involvement.
For years, critics and citizen rights advocates have said the process is too insular, allowing police to review police, and not transparent or sufficiently accessible to the public.
From the five applications, the city will hire a consultant to determine the effectiveness of the IPR as it relates to meeting the needs of the community for resolution of complaints against police, as well as its effectiveness in prompting changes to police policies and procedures. The review will also consider the extent to which investigations conducted by the Internal Affairs Division as reviewed by the IPR "are sufficiently independent, objective and free of conflicts of interest so as to meet the directives of City Council."
The review will also look into the level of satisfaction in the community regarding the IPR’s accessibility and its handling of investigations and complaints.
In 1978 the City of Portland made it a goal to have 5,183 affordable housing units available downtown.
According to a new report by Northwest Pilot Project, the total units of affordable housing in downtown Portland is 3,330 — down 691 units from 1997. The closest the city has come to reaching that goal was in 1994, when 4,554 units were available.
The report also outlines that a person working full time on minimum wage ($7.80/hr.) would fall $44 dollars short of being able to afford a single room in downtown.
For veterans living on a pension or for individuals receiving a Social Security Income, it’s virtually impossible to live in downtown, according to the report.
“Every day we see elderly people in our office, desperately seeking housing that they can afford on their own limited incomes,” says Susan Emmons, Executive Director of Northwest Pilot Project. “As a community, we have some decisions to make about affordable housing in downtown Portland.”
