By Becky Straus, Contributing Columnist On March 27, with dissenting votes from Commissioners Fritz and Novick, the Portland City Council voted to accept the annual report on the Portland Police Bureau’s collaboration with the Joint Terrorism Task Force ( ...
18 Apr 2013 - Street Roots Staff
After the third year in a row of a disappointingly vague report from the Portland Police Bureau on its cooperation with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, frustrated City Council members appear ready to revisit Portland’s nebulous relationship with the FBI. ...
16 Apr 2014 - Becky Straus
Big news last week put Oregon at the forefront of a national movement to disentangle local law enforcement agencies from the harmful practices of federal immigration enforcement, throwing a wrench in the ongoing, devastating deportation dragnet. Sheriff ...
6 May 2014 - Becky Straus
Last month, a U.S. District court ruling in Portland started a chain reaction that’s slowly stripping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of a controversial policing tool. However, from a data-sharing program to a new mobile fingerprinting init ...
29 May 2014 - Nathan Gilles
Law enforcement and police accountability advocates alike are warming to the idea of requiring officers to film their encounters with citizens – a trend that promises to profoundly change law enforcement. Proponents of the idea expect that equipping offic ...
3 Oct 2014 - Jake Thomas
There’s big money to be made in our jails and prisons. Just ask Securus Technologies, Inc. In 2013, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) signed a four-year contract with the Texas-based prison-industry giant, allowing it and two other out-of-state ...
6 Jan 2015 - Emily Green
In 1891, George Breckonridge was the first juvenile to be placed into custody at the reform school for boys in Woodburn, Ore. His crime was stealing a newspaper off his neighbor’s porch. Fast-forward 124 years, and the population within the walls of what ...
10 Jan 2015 - Emily Green
Edward Snowden revealed to the world the great extent of government overreach and mass surveillance on a national scale. As the 2015 Oregon Legislature convenes in Salem next week, curbing warrantless spying here at home should be at the top of its agenda ...
31 Jan 2015 - Becky Straus