Take the Portland Street Response program out of the police union contact
In June, amid immense public outcry surrounding the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans who have died at the hands of police, the Street Roots Editorial Board called for the dismantling of the Portland Police Bureau.
Nine and a half months later, necessity has compelled us to reiterate this plea.
What shape that might take is ripe with opportunity, including a plan floated by Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran that would move the city’s police force to the county’s portfolio. It’s definitely worth a serious exploration.
But paramount in any shift of oversight, should it occur, is the abandonment of the union’s contract, as well as a commitment to ensuring that whatever new contract replaces it strikes a better balance of power between the union and the will of the people.
This is because, fundamentally, public servants should not hold absolute power over the public at large when it comes to public safety policies that affect us all. But that’s what we have in Portland.
Even as voters overwhelmingly approved Measure 26-217 to create a new system of civilian oversight of police, the union — Portland Police Association — and its lawyers are taking issue with provisions that would give the new board the power to investigate and discipline officers, two provisions necessary to hold police accountable for their actions.
On March 14, Willamette Week reported that the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs is fighting a bill that would allow for the use of trained civilians to review fixed speed camera tickets, even though the Police Bureau is unable to perform this duty at a reasonable pace on its own. Camera tickets have been shown to reduce speeds, and speed reductions are shown to save lives and reduce the risk of injury. The coalition’s board president, Brian Hunzeker, was also the president of Portland’s police union. (Hunzeker resigned from his union position Tuesday over “a serious mistake” related to a false hit-and-run allegation against City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty.)
The reason the coalition argues it has a say in this policy change is because the bill would take away work from union members. Under labor law, if the work of union members is being removed, it is up for bargaining in contract negotiations.
And that’s the same reason Portland City Council agreed to give Portland Police Association power over the implementation of a non-police program in which Street Roots has placed high stakes.
In the two years since Street Roots rolled out a plan for Portland Street Response in a special issue of the newspaper, the concept has become widely supported and implemented. A pilot of the program launched in the Lents neighborhood earlier this year.
This approach has gained so much momentum that six U.S. senators, led by Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden, proposed a bill to help states create their own crisis response teams in the model of CAHOOTS, the groundbreaking street crisis program on which Portland Street Response is based. CAHOOTS has operated as a non-police first responder in Eugene for more than 30 years. The bill would encourage the creation of programs like CAHOOTS and Portland Street Response, which sends a medic and social worker instead of police to respond to calls related to mental health, substance use and other non-criminal street crises.
And at the state level, Reps. Lisa Reynolds and Tawna Sanchez have both introduced legislation to promote similar models across Oregon, House Concurrent Resolution 5 and House Bill 2417.
But supporters of seeing such a program fully implemented in Portland should not become complacent.
The Portland Police Association and the city are now negotiating their contract that’s set to expire June 30.
But if agreements made in the extension of negotiations are any indication, danger signs are there.
Before launching Portland Street Response and diverting $4.8 million in funds from the Police Bureau to pay for it — with overwhelming public support for a non-police response to crises on our streets — the city made an agreement with the police union stating in part, “The PPA retains its collective bargaining rights over any implementation of the Portland Street Response program beyond the pilot program.”
The pilot program launched, but only after the union allowed it.
Portland Street Response arose after The Oregonian revealed more than half the calls police were responding to were related to homelessness and had a low or no criminal nexus. Police and community members appeared to agree: This was not what police are hired to do.
The future of this program, now operated through Portland Fire & Rescue, not the Police Bureau, hinges not on its effectiveness, not on whether the public or its elected officials want to see the program continue, but on whether the police union will allow it to continue.
The union representing Portland Fire & Safety has also been granted the “right to negotiate 15 days before the year pilot is over,” according to Portland Street Response spokesperson Caryn Brooks.
According to the Portland Office of the City Attorney, which is not representing the city in police union contract negotiations, the city “definitely” must bargain with the union over Portland Street Response.
“Please know that PSR will continue through the pilot program, as that’s what we agreed to. Thereafter, we will have to bargain to continue the work at PSR,” Chief Deputy City Attorney Heidi Brown told Street Roots in an email.
“I don’t know how the PPA convinced the City, after years of complaining that they should not be first responders to mental health/houseless calls, that taking that work away from them is a change to their working conditions,” Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch said in an email.
A recent random survey of registered voters conducted on behalf of the Street Roots organization’s advocacy arm showed widespread support for an alternative response to these crises continues, as does a deep mistrust of the Police Bureau.
When asked who they thought is better trained to deal with someone experiencing a street crisis connected to mental health, substance use or homelessness, a whopping 87% of respondents said “non-police first responders.”
Perhaps most revealing was the question: “Have you ever decided not to call 911 during a crisis because a police presence would make you or others feel unsafe?” In the face of a crisis they’d seen or experienced, 41% said they chose not to call police for that reason.
As of yet, the issue of Portland Street Response oversight has not been brought up during the public union contract bargaining sessions. The next is scheduled for March 24.
It’s difficult for the public to make an ask related to the police union contract, Unite Oregon spokesperson Andrew Riley said, because there is no direct channel. Portlanders must persuade the City Council to make a demand, then the council can direct its contracted attorney to try and negotiate the demand; however, the attorney is constrained by collective bargaining law, and Portland Police Association is not required to agree to anything.
When it comes to Portland Street Response, it’s ultimately up to the union as to whether it will cede control of the program, and it’s unlikely to do that. In June, the union agreed to allow up to six street response teams instead of one — in exchange for a cost of living increase in wages.
“They are essentially holding the PSR program hostage, using it as leverage to extract concessions from the City Council,” Riley said. “This is why the PPA contract matters so much — although you can’t get to sweeping police accountability and changes in the system of policing through PPA contract negotiation, we can’t get them without negotiating with PPA, in the current system.”
While efforts aimed at restructuring the Police Bureau and moving it to the county are in their infancy, there are actions to be taken immediately.
Street Roots is launching a campaign asking the City Council to negotiate toward removing the decision-making process over the future of Portland Street Response from the union’s contract. Visit the website of the Portland Street Response campaign to join.
Unite Oregon is helping lead a campaign to ensure other items favored by the community, such as the new system for oversight that voters approved, are not negotiated away. Visit its website to read its coalition letter to the city.
The city must hold firm to its authority over the future of Portland Street Response and not let its subjugation as just another bargaining chip for the police union continue. If that means an impasse in negotiations, so be it. If that were to happen, the contract would go to an independent arbitrator, who would make the final decision. If the matter of the Portland Street Response oversight remains unresolved, it has a chance of being shifted to city, not union, discretion.
Street Roots stands behind worker protections and values the benefits unions afford their members — and any new peace officer department, if created, would need a union and contract to attract workers — but it is nothing short of fallacious when a union representing public servants becomes so powerful that the will of taxpayers matters not at all.
Street Roots editorials represent the opinion of the Street Roots organization and editorial board.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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