Mental Health Association of Portland

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, May 16, 2013

Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales announced Thursday that the city will not cut its share of funding for the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center, as he had set out to do in his proposed budget.

“We are gratified that people having serious mental health issues will continue to have this vital resource,” Hales said, in a joint statement with Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen. “In the two years since the county and city jointly opened the CATC, the center has helped to stabilize about 1,300 people in a mental health crisis.”

Hales’ proposed cut was harshly criticized by Cogen as a short-sighted mistake.

The 16-bed secure center opened in June 2011 off Northeast Grand Avenue to considerable fanfare by city, county and state officials. They touted it as a much-needed alternative to jail and hospital emergency rooms for people suffering a mental health crisis. Portland’s City Council resolution called the investment “a very high priority.”

But nearly two years later, Hales had recommended cutting the city’s annual $634,000 share of funding for the center, based on reports from Portland police that they haven’t found it useful.

Some veteran patrol officers dedicated to crisis intervention work say they didn’t know the center existed. The Police Bureau hasn’t encouraged officers to bring people they encounter there, largely because it doesn’t allow for drop-offs.

Center managers, though, earlier this month pointed to statistics that showed while Portland police haven’t been taking people directly to the center, many of the people they encountered were ending up there for treatment anyway.

Of the 1,300 people treated since the center opened, 942 patients came from emergency departments, where police likely took them initially, county officials said. Another 358 came from community referrals through social service agencies and the county jail. Of those referrals, 82 came from Project Respond staffers, who police regularly call out to mental health emergencies.

Under an agreement signed in 2010, the city and Multnomah County each agreed to 20 percent, or $634,000, of the center’s $3.5 million operating costs. The state picks up the rest.

The mayor’s about-face came after further discussions with Cogen about the crisis center, as well talks about finding ways to fund other services, such as the needle exchange program, a one-stop domestic violence center, local senior centers and SUN schools.

“Because Multnomah County is in a stable budget position this year” Hales and Cogen said in their statement, “we agreed that the county will pick up the city’s share for the needle exchange program and one-stop domestic violence center. And the county will provide one-time-only money to maintain the current level of funding for our community’s senior centers and split the cost of three SUN schools for one year, giving both the city and county time to work on a longer-term solution for both of those vital services.”

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, May 4, 2013

After her son died, Carol Slaney found help at the CATC.

Carol Slaney woke up Jan. 31 to find her 26-year-old son dead beside her bed from an accidental drug overdose. She grabbed a .45-caliber revolver and disappeared, hiding in an abandoned house behind her Southeast Portland apartment.

“I just sat in that house, spinning the gun, planning my death,” Slaney said. “He was my world.”

Worried family members called police to check on her. As officers shined flashlights into the windows of her apartment, Slaney watched through the window of the derelict home nearby.

Slaney, who suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, had been placed on mental health holds before, a self-described frequent flyer at hospital emergency rooms. She didn’t want to return there, so she remained hidden from police.

On her fourth day alone, Slaney desperately called her case manager and pleaded, “I need to go to CATC.”

Peer support counselor Ashleigh Brenton

“In my darkest time, they just took my hand and walked with me,” Slaney, 49, said this week, as she sat inside the Multnomah County’s Crisis and Assessment and Treatment Center. “This place is personal and genuine. CATC is probably my savior.”

The 16-bed secure center opened in June 2011 off Northeast Grand Avenue to considerable fanfare by city, county and state officials. They touted it as a much-needed alternative to jail and hospital emergency rooms for people suffering a mental health crisis. Portland’s City Council resolution called the investment “a very high priority.”

But nearly two years later, Mayor Charlie Hales has recommended cutting the city’s annual $634,000 share of funding for the center, based on reports from Portland police that they haven’t found it useful.

CATC Administrator Dan Clune

Some veteran patrol officers dedicated to crisis intervention work say they didn’t know the center existed. The Police Bureau hasn’t encouraged officers to bring people they encounter there, largely because it doesn’t allow for drop-offs.

“It’s a valuable service,” said Lt. Cliff Bacigalupi, who is supervising the creation of a new police crisis intervention team. “It just wasn’t a good fit for us.”

Center managers, though, point to statistics that show while Portland police aren’t taking people directly to the center, many of the people they encounter are ending up there for treatment anyway.

To date, the center has treated 1,300 people. Of those, 942 patients came from emergency departments, where police likely took them initially, county officials said. Another 358 came from community referrals through social service agencies and the county jail. Of those referrals, 82 came from Project Respond staffers, who police regularly call out to mental health emergencies.

Peer support counselor Akil Stigler

“We discovered the police have been using it indirectly,” said Jeff Cogen, Multnomah County chairman. “But it doesn’t have to happen that way.”

The center, on the second floor of the David P. Hooper Sobering Center, serves adults 18 or older who live in Multnomah County and have serious mental illness. They must be indigent or have insurance coverage through Oregon Health Plan-Health Share.

The locked floor with 16 rooms resembles a wing of a hospital, yet with a lounge area decorated with patients’ artwork, an outdoor patio with picnic tables and a kitchen. It’s the only short-term crisis center of its kind in the county.

Patients stay from four to 14 days, until their symptoms stabilize. They must have a diagnosed mental illness, be referred from either a community care provider, an emergency room or acute hospital unit. They also must have stable medical vital signs on arrival. Upon discharge, they leave with a plan for follow-up treatment.

A patient room at the CATC.

Mental health clinicians, psychiatrists, nurses and peer support specialists are on staff 24 hours, seven days a week.

If the Portland City Council approves the mayor’s proposed cut, the county-run center expects to reduce its beds to 11 and serve about 200 fewer people a year. The city and county had agreed in 2010 to each pay 20 percent, or $634,000, of the center’s $3.5 million operating costs. The state picks up the rest.

Police say the center simply isn’t practical for patrol officers. In a March 2012 report, they said they can’t take people straight there and that the center doesn’t accept patients who are a danger to themselves or others, combative or assaultive, high on drugs or drunk. Instead, the report said, police end up arresting people in crisis and taking them to jail or driving them to local emergency rooms.

READ – Police Bureau report on CATC, March 2012

Outside patio at the CATC.

The Police Bureau’s position baffles center administrators, particularly when federal investigators have demanded Portland police improve their encounters with people suffering from mental illness.

The county also has a dedicated line for police to call when dealing with mental health emergencies and the staff can refer them to the crisis center. But police have rarely used it.

Center managers said police can request workers from the nonprofit Project Respond to assess people in the field and refer them to the center for treatment when appropriate.

Project Respond tries to use the center as much as possible, said the agency’s director, Jay Auslander. “It allows some folks to avoid going to the ER, or helps shorten their hospital visits,” he said.

Staff meeting at shift change.

Center managers estimate that it takes an average of 15 to 30 minutes to admit a person, often a far cry from the lengthy wait police find at hospital ERs.

They also dispute that the police claim that the center doesn’t treat people who are a danger to themselves or others.

“We take those folks all the time,” said Kevin McChesney, the regional director for Telecare, which contracts with the county to operate the center. In fact, he said, most patients are considered a danger to themselves or others.

Center workers just want to make sure police have disarmed the people so they’re not an immediate threat, he said.

Artwork on the wall was done by a former patient.

“We can certainly take people police pluck off a bridge who are suicidal,” McChesney added. But he acknowledged: “We’re not so certain about the person swinging an ax.”

It appears from his discussions with police, McChesney said, that they want a drop-off treatment center that accepts people without a referral, similar to the county-sponsored Crisis Triage Center that operated at Providence Medical Center until its closure in 2003.

“It seems to me they want an all or nothing solution. There needs to be a cooperative effort with police and so far that hasn’t occurred,” he said. “I think there are additional avenues where police can use this. There really hasn’t been a great dialogue about that, and I would welcome that.”

Police Capt. Sara Westbrook said most of the people officers place on mental health holds require a higher level of security and care than the patients accepted at the center. It just isn’t a good option for police, she said.

The mayor said the city is working to seal an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice for police reforms on how to help people with mental illness.

“If it’s the county center or another resource, the bottom line is helping people who the police encounter,” Hales said by email. “… We’re actively engaged with a wide array of parties to determine the type of resources that would be of greatest practical assistance to our officers on the street.”

Slaney has been admitted to the crisis center at least five different times. She’s gotten to know the staff, many of whom had met her son, Jonathan, during his visits with her. He died from methadone and methamphetamine toxicity.

“Sometimes I get weak and fall astray and return here,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone could ever understand. I didn’t see no hope. But the staff here reminded me that I needed to honor my son’s memory. Regardless of my mental illness, you’re made to feel special here.”

Slaney recently packed up her son’s clothes and donated them to the crisis center.

“They don’t get enough credit for who they are and what they’re about,” she said. “I just knew where I was, and what they’ve done for me.”

Portland Police Bureau news release, April 30, 2013

In response to the changing landscape of police work and the requirements set forth in the City’s proposed agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Portland Police Bureau has created the Behavioral Health Unit (BHU). The BHU is located within Central Precinct and encompasses and oversees the four tiers of police response to individuals with mental illness or in crisis:

• The core competency crisis intervention training for all officers;
• Enhanced crisis intervention training for a group of officers who volunteer to respond to most crisis calls;
• The proactive Mobile Crisis Unit (MCU) and,
• The Service Coordination Team (SCT).

BHU is commanded by Captain Sara Westbrook, a 27-year-veteran of law enforcement (19 with the Portland Police Bureau and eight with Thurston County and Tumwater, WA); Lieutenant Cliff Bacigalupi, a 16-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau; and Sergeant Robert McCormick, an 28-year-veteran of law enforcement (18 with the Portland Police Bureau and 10 with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office).

PPB Behavioral Health Unit

Officer Amy Bruner-Dehnert, an 8-year-veteran, has been selected as the new Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Coordinator. Officer Bruner-Dehnert also served 20 years in the United States Army, serving in Operation Enduring Freedom (Iraq), retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Officer Bret Burton, a 9-year-veteran of law enforcement (five with the Portland Police Bureau and four with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office), was selected to the Mobile Crisis Unit (MCU) car in July 2012, and works with Averyl Growden, a Licensed Mental Health Professional from Project Respond.

Officer Sean Christian, an 18-year-veteran of law enforcement (five with the Portland Police Bureau and 13 with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office), was selected to the Mobile Crisis Unit in March 2013, and works with Dinah Brooks, a licensed Mental Health Professional from Project Respond.

Officer Josh Silverman, a 3-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau, was selected to the Mobile Crisis Unit in March 2013, and works with Cindy Hackett. Cindy has been working with the Police Bureau as a Mobile Crisis Unit clinician since 2010.

The Mobile Crisis Unit will continue to proactively work with individuals who have multiple contacts with police to attempt to connect them with appropriate services in advance of a mental health crisis.

Although all Portland Police Bureau officers will continue to receive crisis intervention training throughout their careers, 50 officers from a variety of patrol assignments have been selected as Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team officers. These Officers will be the first responders dispatched by 9-1-1 to calls that are determined to be related to an individual in a mental heath crisis. BHU command staff conducted internal background checks on each officer to include complaints, Employee Information Systems (EIS) review, Use of Force review, and immediate supervisor input.

Training for the new CIT officers will begin in May with two sessions and will include: indicators of mental illness; crisis communication skills; interaction with consumers and family members; and education on community resources. The training will include scenarios applying patrol tactics to persons in behavior crisis.

Also under the auspices of the BHU, is the Service Coordination Team (SCT), a program that offers treatment to the City’s most frequent drug and property crime offenders to address their drug and alcohol addictions, mental health issues and criminality. This program has successfully graduated 102 former drug addicts from its treatment program, reducing recidivism among program graduates by 91%.

Officer James Crooker, an 11-year-veteran of law enforcement, has been selected to work in the unit. Officer Crooker has been a Portland Police officer for four years. Prior to that he was a police officer in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and also served in the United States Marine Corps (Staff Sergeant) for 13 years, deploying to Iraq for Operation Enduring Freedom II.

These are some of the initial changes that the Portland Police Bureau is undertaking to respond to the evolving context in which police officers find themselves. The Portland Police Bureau is committed to continuous improvement in our delivery of service to Portland’s most vulnerable communities.

From The Skanner, April 18, 2013

The police union is in court-ordered mediation with the City of Portland and the Department of Justice, after challenging their settlement agreement on police reforms.

Meanwhile Police Chief Mike Reese is pushing ahead with hiring for the new Behavioral Health Unit. But critics say Reese’s hiring choices are eroding community confidence.

Bret Burton Hired to Mobile Crisis Unit

Portland Police Chief Mike Reese defended the bureau when the Department of Justice report was released

Reese recently appointed Bret Burton, for example, as Portland Police Bureau’s first, and for months the only, Mobile Crisis Unit officer. Burton is the former sheriff’s deputy who used his Taser on James Chasse during the September 2006 confrontation that ended with Chasse’s death in police custody.

“We were very surprised that Burton was selected of all the officers taking courses,” says Jason Renaud, co-founder of the Mental Health Association of Portland. The mental health association position is that officers who are responsible in the death of a citizen should not remain in the police force, Renaud said, and the Chasse case raised troubling issues about the officers actions.

“So we asked for his resignation and we asked the city not to hire him.”

Burton was one of three law enforcement officers at the scene of Chasse’s arrest. His employer at the time, Multnomah County, paid $925,000 to Chasse’s family to settle a civil suit. The City of Portland, who employed the other two men, Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice, paid out $1.6 million to settle the civil suit. An ambulance company, American Medical Response, paid $600,000.

Renaud, who knew Chasse and produced the documentary Alien Boy about his life and death, says the association asked for all three officers to be fired. But the city went on to hire Burton from the county. Last year he appeared in an Australian video, apparently as a PPB spokesperson on Taser use.

Watch the video here

Portland Police Bureau spokesman Pete Simpson, said the Behavioral Health Unit will be supervised by a sergeant and a lieutenant, under the command of Capt. Sara Westbrook.

The other two teams are: the Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team and the Service Coordination Team. One full-time officer has been assigned to the Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team as the coordinator and another full-time officer has been assigned to the Service Coordination Team as its coordinator.

Burton was the first to be hired to the Mobile Crisis Unit. Asked whether Burton was considered for a coordinator position, Simpson said he was not, adding that because the mobile crisis unit has just three officers, it doesn’t need a separate coordinator.

“The ECIT has 50 detached officers so a coordinator is needed,” he notes. “Same with SCU, although I don’t have the list of officers, but it’s more than a dozen.”

Renaud says Burton could have chosen the job because his experiences in the Chasse case taught him an important lesson.

“Perhaps he is the person who is most affected by this work and has somehow been transformed. Perhaps he is more conscious of people with mental illness,” Renaud said. “The other thing we will benefit from is that he will spend a lot of time working with professional psychotherapists. The psychotherapists with Project Respond will spend a lot more time talking to Burton, their co-worker, than they will talking to people with mental illness.”

Reese’s Hiring Decisions and Community Relations

Dan Handelman, of Portland Copwatch, said Reese’s track record suggests he doesn’t consider the impact of his personnel decisions on police community relations.

“It’s surprising on the one hand, but it fits the pattern,” he says of Burton’s appointment. “He appointed Capt. [Mark] Kruger, known for dressing up like a Nazi and for violence during protests, to teach tactical teams how to respond in crisis situations.”

Handelman also points to the chief’s decision to appoint Todd Wyatt, who inappropriately touched women colleagues, to supervise sexual assault and human trafficking investigators. Wyatt also violated other use of force and professional conduct rules, according to The Oregonian, and the police review board voted to fire him.

“It just keeps chipping away at community confidence in the police,” Handelman said. “They talk about community policing all the time, but they never think about how the community might react.”

Handelman said a pattern was set early on when Reese appointed Mike Kuykendall, a friend who played in a band with him, to a top administrative position. In doing so he lost the opportunity to hire someone who would expand community confidence in his leadership, Handelman says.

Kuykendall resigned in February in a text message scandal, again involving Kruger. At the same time he also resigned from the board of the Police Activities League, which had just announced it had run out of money and would have to close its youth centers. OSHA recently fined the organization for lax health and safety at the East Portland Youth Center, including failing to deal with asbestos flooring in the girls and staff restrooms.

Seven Years After James Chasse’s Death

The other two officers who were involved in James Chasse’s arrest and subsequent death also are still in law enforcement.

In July 2012, an arbitrator overturned the city’s disciplinary action against both men. They had been given 80-hour suspensions without pay.

Sgt. Kyle Nice was returned to street patrol in East precinct in September 2012. Previously he had been placed in a desk job after an April 2010 road rage incident, where he pulled his weapon and flipped off a motorist.

Officer Chris Humphreys was involved in another controversy in 2009, when he shot a 12-year-old girl in the thigh with a beanbag gun at close range. She was struggling with another officer after being arrested for being on the MAX train. She had been barred from TriMet.

Five Hundred PPB officers staged a demonstration wearing tee-shirts that read, “I am Chris Humphreys.” Humphreys collected disability for job-related stress until November 2010 when he was medically laid off. He then ran for Sheriff in Wheeler County Oregon. His only opposition was a write-in candidate and he was elected in November 2012.

The Department of Justice report found Portland Police had a “pattern and practice” of violating the civil rights of people with mental illness or perceived to have mental illness. It also raised questions about police relationships with communities of color.

The agreement is meant to resolve the Department of Justice finding, by changing policy on use of force and changing how police deal with people in crisis.

But Portland Police Association challenged the reform efforts, saying many provisions are subject to contract negotiations. Now the police union is in court-ordered mediation with the city and the DOJ. The union will have the right to appeal if it disagrees with the outcome. The Albina Ministerial Alliance has a seat at the table, but no power to challenge or appeal the decision.

Judge Michael Simon, who happens to be married to Sen. Suzanne Bonamici, has ordered everyone involved to keep a strict silence about the negotiations.

Jo Ann Hardesty, who represents the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform in the mediations, says the tradeoff is worth it.

“It’s so important for the community to have a seat at this table,” she says. “The Department of Justice believes it represents the people, but they don’t have the deep history of the injustices that go way back in this community.”

The mediation is supposed to be coming to a close with the parties ready to report back to Judge Simon on April 24.

President Obama recently nominated Thomas Perez the attorney who led the investigation for the federal Office of Civil Rights, for Secretary of Labor. His nomination is facing strong opposition, however, from Republicans.

Portland police officer involved in James Chasse case now part of mental health unit

From The Oregonian, April 21, 2013

One of the officers who had contact with James P. Chasse Jr. before he died in police custody in 2006 is now part of the Portland Police Bureau’s expanded mobile crisis unit.

Chasse, 42, suffered from schizophrenia and died from blunt force trauma to the chest on Sept. 17, 2006, after officers chased him and knocked him to the ground in the Pearl District. Officer Bret Burton, then a Multnomah County deputy, had used a stun gun on Chasse.

Paramedics came to the scene, but didn’t take Chasse to the hospital. Instead, police drove him to jail, but jail staff refused to book him. Police then drove him in a police cruiser to the hospital, and he died on the way.

Chasse’s death resulted in $3.1 million in settlements by the city of Portland, Multnomah County and American Medical Response to Chasse’s family. It also prompted the Police Bureau in 2007 to require all officers be trained in crisis intervention.

Burton, who was subsequently hired as a Portland officer, now is one of three officers who are paired with Project Respond mental health workers. They connect mentally ill people who have frequent contact with police to local agencies for treatment and help. He doesn’t respond to emergency calls for service.

Portland police expanded the unit from one officer to three this year as part of the pending city settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which found that Portland police engage in a pattern of excessive force against people suffering from mental illness.

Portland police and Burton didn’t immediately return calls for comment Thursday.

In an interview February with KGW, Burton said the encounter with Chasse was “something I think about every day.”

“It’s definitely something that’s changed my life and changed the way we do police work here in the city,” he said.

Jason Renaud, co-founder of the Mental Health Association of Portland, in the past called for the officers involved in the Chasse case to be fired or resign. He said Thursday he still believes they should have lost their jobs, but he admires Burton.

“I think it’s impressive that he wouldn’t run away from it and instead is using his experience to do more to get involved,” said Renaud, who produced a documentary on Chasse. “We can’t always get what we want. But some times, we find that some things can change.”

Officer Dane Reister

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, April 11, 2013

Portland Police Officer Dane Reister should lose his job for suddenly firing a beanbag shotgun that he mistakenly loaded with lethal rounds at a man obviously suffering from a mental illness, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday says.

READ – Complaint – William Kyle Monroe v City of Portland et al (PDF, 573KB)

The attorney for William Kyle Monroe, wounded by Reister on June 30, 2011, accuses the officer, Police Chief Mike Reese and the city of Portland of violating Monroe’s civil rights through false arrest, assault and negligence.

The suit seeks more than $11 million in damages.

Monroe, who was 20 at the time and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, narrowly escaped bleeding to death only because OHSU Hospital was near the shooting scene, but he’s permanently disabled, his lawyer said.

The suit alleges that the police chief could have prevented such a mistake by prohibiting officers from mixing lethal ammunition with less-lethal munitions in their duty bags, as Reister did. Further, the suit contends, the bureau has failed to adequately discipline officers who are “pre-disposed” to using excessive force.

“Defendant Reister’s conduct was so extreme that it goes beyond all possible bounds of decency, and it constituted conduct that a reasonable person would regard as intolerable in a civilized community,” Monroe’s attorney Thane Tienson wrote in the suit.

The suit calls on the court to order the Police Bureau to fire Reister and appoint an independent monitor to enforce the terms of the city’s pending agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on use of force policies, training and oversight. The reforms stem from a federal investigation last year that found Portland police engage in a pattern of excessive force against people with mental illness.

Nearly two years after the shooting, the police chief and city have not disciplined Reister, who remains on paid administrative leave while facing criminal charges, the suit notes. Reister has pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with third- and fourth-degree assault charges. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office added a negligent wounding charge. The indictment marked the first time in the county’s history that a grand jury brought criminal charges against a Portland officer for force used on duty.

“By their inaction, said defendants have condoned, ratified or otherwise turned a blind eye to defendant Reister’s extreme misconduct and demonstrated a deliberate indifference to the plaintiff’s constitutionally protected rights,” Tienson wrote in the suit.

Janet Hoffman, Reister’s attorney, issued a statement after she informed the officer about the suit Thursday. “Officer Reister is thankful that Mr. Monroe survived and is recovering,” she said. “He is looking forward to the facts coming out at trial and fully explaining the situation.”

According to the suit, Monroe, who lives with his father in Hillsboro, had intended to drive to Bremerton, Wash., to visit his mother the day before the shooting, but became disoriented and was suffering from a paranoid mania.

He ended up in Lair Hill Park the next morning, where children from a day camp were playing. Monroe pulled discarded flowers out of a park garbage bin and tossed them near the children. Camp supervisors told Monroe to leave the park. Police received two 9-1-1 calls from camp officials. The camp director said in the second call that Monroe may have a pocket knife up his sleeve.

Reister responded to the call. He spotted Monroe on Southwest Naito Parkway, commanded him to stop and get down on his knees with his hands behind his head. Reister asked Monroe if he had any weapons, and Monroe emptied his pockets, discarding his miniature Swiss army knife, the suit says. Monroe put his hands behind his head, but asked why he should get on his knees. Reister grabbed his beanbag shotgun from his car, and two more officers arrived.

Monroe assured police he hadn’t done anything wrong as he backed away and then began running and yelled for help. Without warning, the suit says, Reister fired five times, emptying his clip. The fifth round jammed because of Reister’s “excessively rapid firing,” the suit says.

The shots fractured Monroe’s pelvis, punctured his bladder, abdomen and colon. The fourth shot, fired from less than 15 feet away, left a “softball-size hole in his left leg,” and severed the sciatic nerve, the suit says.

The next day, then-Mayor Sam Adams and Reese called the shooting a “tragic mistake.” The president of the Portland Police Association said the union would “stand by” Reister through the judicial process.

Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said Thursday night that the bureau can no discuss not pending lawsuit.

Four months after the shooting, Reese issued a new policy, requiring that beanbag ammunition be stored only in a carrier attached to the side or stock of the orange-painted, 12-gauge beanbag shotguns.

Five years earlier, the suit noted, Reister mistakenly fired a loaded riot-suppression launcher during training, injuring an officer posing as a protester with a smoke round.

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, April 8, 2013

Protest following Aaron Campbell’s shooting death by then-Officer Ronald Frashour.

Portland police disciplined for using excessive force would not be able to challenge the discipline before a state arbitrator, under a bill that will have a hearing before state lawmakers on Wednesday.

State Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, has sponsored the bill, at the request of Portland attorneys Greg and Jason Kafoury. The Kafourys are disturbed by the high-profile Portland police discipline cases that get overturned by a state arbitrator.

The bill would only affect Portland police, as it’s written for Oregon cities with populations over 300,000.

An arbitrator’s ruling ordering the reinstatement of fired Officer Ronald Frashour, who fatally shot an unarmed man in the back in January 2010, is among the most recent examples.

The Kafourys said they’re pushing for a legislative change because the city has not been able to negotiate changes to the Portland Police Association contract, which allows for binding arbitration.

Senate Bill 747 will be heard at 3 p.m. before the Senate’s General Government, Consumer and Small Business Protection Committee.

The proposed legislation also would allow police managers to issue serious discipline for misconduct that may have drawn a less severe penalty in the past.

“Our goal is to have a police union contract in Portland which does not allow for arbitration in cases of use of excessive force,” said Greg Kafoury on Monday. “We want there to be political, democratic control of the police department. That’s only going to happen when the mayor has ultimate power over police discipline.”

Kafoury called the arbitration cases enormously expensive for the city of Portland, “and they lose virtually all of them.”

“Even when we sue an officer and win six figure verdicts” Greg Kafoury said, “they’re routinely ignored.”

Police union representatives have argued that the percentage of discipline cases they challenge is small. A 2012 Oregonian review found that in the prior 10 years, 12 discipline cases in the nearly 1,000-member Portland police force ended up in arbitration. An arbitrator overturned the discipline in half; the others were awaiting a hearing or a ruling.

Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association

But the cases that reach arbitration usually are high profile and involve the most egregious conduct, tactics leading to the use of deadly force or, in Frashour’s case, the use of such force.

For example, an arbitrator overturned Frashour’s firing; the 80-hour suspensions for former Officer Chris Humphreys (now Wheeler County Sheriff) and Sgt. Kyle Nice following the death of James P. Chasse Jr. in police custody; the 900-hour suspension of Officer Scott McCollister for his actions leading up to his fatal shooting of Kendra James; and the firing of Lt. Jeff Kaer, for his actions leading up to the fatal shooting of a motorist who was parked outside his sister’s home.

Will Aitchison, who represented the Portland Police Association for 32 years, said there were only three terminations of Portland officers related to use of force that were overturned by an arbitrator during his tenure: that of Kaer, Frashour and Officer Doug Erickson.

“It’s a solution in search of a problem,” Aithison said of the Kafourys’ legislative initiative.

Aitchison argued that the bill would “deprive police officers of the right to an independent review, as to whether discipline is fair.”

Last summer, The Oregonian reviewed 14 Portland police arbitration decisions since 1981 and found that discipline usually was overturned because either the bureau did a shoddy investigation or the arbitrator picked apart a chief’s decision with a grab-bag of objections: Similar misconduct by officers in the past hadn’t drawn such discipline, police policies were unclear or none governed the alleged misconduct, bureau instructors testified that an officer had acted as trained, or the officer had a prior clean record.

Greg and Jason Kafoury said they plan to play at Wednesday’s hearing part of a Feb. 9, 2011 deposition they took from former Police Chief Rosie Sizer stemming from a lawsuit against Sgt. Kyle Nice, in which she said she didn’t recall firing anyone for excessive force during her tenure as chief. Further, the deposition shows that Sizer thought all Portland police terminations for use of force “were all overturned through the labor process.”

During Chief Mike Reese‘s tenure, he’s had to rehire two officers he fired: Frashour and Scott Dunick, who smoked marijuana off-duty, gave one of his prescription pills to a fellow officer and then drove drunk while under investigation. An arbitrator ordered the chief to reinstate Dunick, albeit with a three-month suspension.

The Kafourys said they recognize the bill will face vehement opposition from the city’s police unions and likely does not have the support to pass this session.

“It’s going to be a long-term battle,” Jason Kafoury said.

Greg Kafoury met briefly with Mayor Charlie Hales to discuss the bill.

“We are aware of the bill and are monitoring it,” said Dana Haynes, the mayor’s spokesman.” We have not taken a position to support it or not at this time.”

From The Lund Report, March 15, 2013

The DOJ settlement with the city of Portland requires coordinated care organizations to set up mental health drop-off centers by July, but it’s unclear how they were singled out in the agreement

Last December’s settlement between the Department of Justice and the city of Portland tasked the city and Multnomah County with a host of reforms intended to improve interactions between police and people with mental illness – and to improve access to mental healthcare.

READ – DOJ v City of Portland settlement

Some of the provisions in the yet-to-be-finalized settlement have been identified and, according to DOJ Police Reforms Manager Clay Neal, are already under way. Neal said the bureau has established a behavioral crisis unit and, after expanding crisis intervention training to all officers is looking to offering an enhanced version of that training to other officers.

“It’ll just be more intense. They’ll just be the go-to officers,” Neal said. “They’re people who want to be working in that realm.”

But another section of the settlement is less well-known and has some stakeholders puzzling over next steps and funding – particularly since they aren’t involved in the settlement.

Section V of the settlement outlines goals for creating community-based mental health services, and tasks the coordinated care organizations with a big piece of that: “The United States expects that the local CCOs will establish, by mid-2013, one or more drop-off center(s) for first responders and public walk-in centers for individuals with addictions and/or behavioral health service needs. All such drop off/walk-in centers should focus care plans on appropriate discharge and community based treatment options, including assertive community treatment teams, rather than unnecessary hospitalization.”

The settlement also says that CCOs should create addictions and mental health-focused subcommittees, which will include representatives from the police bureau’s addictions and behavioral health unit, the unit’s advisory board, Portland Fire and Rescue and the Bureau of Emergency Communications.

Neal called that section “aspirational” and not binding to the city, and said city staff is participating in mental health workgroups with staff from the coordinated care organizations. Because these drop-in centers are not required, they will have no impact on the city’s budget deficit.

It’s also still an open question as to why the coordinated care organizations are actually part of the settlement since they were in their infancy when that agreement was reached in December. Neither Multnomah County nor the Oregon Health Authority participated in those settlement talks, he said.

Most of the recommendations in the settlement were negotiated, Neal said, with representatives from the city and the Department of Justice.

“Looking at the issue of police involvement with mental illness, a drop-off facility was one of the primary recommendations,” Neal said. “It wasn’t new ideas that were coming through the agreement. The process involved a lot of looking at what research has been done.”

Several workgroups have already been convened by Health Share of Oregon to strengthen the mental health system, said Beth Sorensen, communications manager. Deborah Friedman also begins her role as director of behavioral services in April.

“Health Share’s efforts are aimed at reducing the number of transports to avoid the need for a new drop-off center,” Sorensen said. “However, if the outcome of our work groups and our grant-funded initiatives indicates a need for that type of center, then not only Health Share, but Family Care and the county mental health authority would also be part of creating that type of facility.”

The settlement has yet to be finalized – as the mediation process between the DOJ, the Albina Ministerial Alliance and the Portland Police Association is still ongoing.

Last fall U. S. Department of Justice report said what mental health advocates had been saying for years: the Portland Police Bureau disproportionately and excessively applies force against people with mental illnesses.

The settlement is the result of an investigation begun in June 2011 and concluded last fall about the Portland Police Bureau’s use of force. That investigation determined that incidents involving the use of force disproportionately involved people with mental health diagnoses, as highlighted by several use-of-force cases in recent years, including the death of James Chasse, Jr., a lifelong Portland resident who died in police custody in 2006, several hours after an incident where several of his ribs were broken, prompting three lawsuits. Following the 2010 death of Aaron Campbell, who was unarmed and distraught over his brother’s death, former Mayor Sam Adams asked the federal government to investigate the bureau’s use of force.

Alien Boy, a documentary film about Chasse’s life and death, just wrapped a two-week run at Cinema 21 in Portland and is now playing at the Living Room Theater in Portland.

Most recently, Merle Hatch, who was shot by Portland police after a confrontation at Adventist Hospital, was described as struggling with addiction for most of his adult life, and Santiago Cisneros, who died March 4after a shootout with two officers in Northeast Portland, had received treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In an open letter to the DOJ released by the Mental Health Association of Portland last fall, its authors noted that people experiencing mental illness often do not respond well to authoritative commands – and that incidents of police brutality are the result of a system that fails to dismiss officers with a history of violence, but also fails to provide treatment options to head off acute episodes of mental illness.

“Without worthwhile treatment resources, acute illness is a predictable, routinely experienced complication of many illnesses,” the statement said. “For us, inability to respond to police immediately or typically can provoke an escalation in tactics that too often results in injury or death. While the settlement agreement does address treatment deficiencies, it is mainly responsive to the convenience of police, not the expressed needs of our community.”

From the Portland Mercury, February 27, 2013

Merle Mikal Hatch was holding a busted, stolen black telephone handset—eight inches long and two inches wide—when he ran at a pack of Portland cops he’d been swearing at and goading from 80 yards away. He clearly wasn’t in his right mind. And he didn’t have a gun.

But Hatch never got any closer than 40 or so feet, dropping when those three officers opened fire outside Adventist Medical Center on Sunday, February 17.

The story of Hatch’s final moments—Portland’s first police shooting of 2013—came out last Wednesday, February 20, during a carefully programmed press conference. The cops released a cell phone video, police radio audio, and surveillance camera stills to help fill in the picture of a death that happened just 12 minutes after the East Precinct first received calls about Hatch.

But, of note, police still won’t say how many shots were fired, what Hatch was doing in Adventist’s emergency room, or whether the cops who shot him had even thought about using less-lethal weapons to subdue a man who kept calling them from behind an SUV to “come play.” Those things will wait for a grand jury hearing expected in the next several days.

“They intentionally kept their distance,” Police Chief Mike Reese said, flanked at one point by his boss, Mayor Charlie Hales, and newly promoted Assistant Chief Donna Henderson. “The situation unfolded very quickly.”

The implied storyline, without knowing why Hatch was a patient at Adventist, was “suicide by cop.” Photos show Hatch, with a black object in his waistband, confronting a security guard. In the cell phone video, captured by a hospital neighbor leaning outside a window, Hatch can be heard shouting various incendiary things at the cops he spotted:

“I’m gonna take hostages, motherfucker. You stupid motherfucker.” “You’re making it fucking hard for me and you.” “You want some? You wanna play? Come on.”

Finally, he takes off, announcing: “Okay. I’m gonna come to you. I’m coming to you, pig. Let’s go. Let’s go.” As he raced closer, the officers didn’t budge. Hatch starts counting while the officers bark out “stop” and “hands up.” By the time Hatch bellows “THREE,” there’s a loud burst of gunfire followed by one more shot at the very end.

The police audio repeatedly describes Hatch’s broken phone headset as a “weapon” and “gun,” even warning after he fell that “the weapon is just a few inches from his right hand.” But Henderson wouldn’t say for sure, citing the grand jury process, whether the officers clearly saw him clutching it.

“We’re very concerned the police shot somebody who was holding a piece of plastic in their hands,” says Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch. “Maybe the police could have used less-lethal weapons if he was charging at them.”

Handelman, later in the week, offered to produce flashcards for the police bureau illustrating the difference between real weapons and simulated weapons—drawing from several police shootings in recent years in which men were shot while holding things like an X-Acto knife. On Monday, February 25, he said Reese had not taken him up on the offer.

“No response.”

The bureau also trumpeted something it didn’t know when cops shot Hatch: that he was a federal fugitive with a long record who likely robbed two local banks in the days before he died.

Handelman was reminded of officers’ attempts to cover the 2006 death of James Chasse Jr., when witnesses and others were told of drug charges that proved false.

“They didn’t know any of that stuff when they shot him,” Handelman says. “They’re trying to smear his character so that when a grand jury is considering whether police acted lawfully they’ll say, ‘Look. This is a bad guy.’”

The bureau did say it could find no history of mental illness for Hatch. But it argued that medical privacy laws prevent it from saying why he was at Adventist or exactly how long he’d been there before he threatened a guard and ran outside.

The Mental Health Association of Portland grimly notes that most people killed by police, historically, are somehow impaired—suffering from untreated addiction or a brain injury or mental illness.

“These deaths are rare but predictable and are largely avoidable” with better police training, recruiting, and tactics, it said in a statement. “‘Suicide by cop’ is not an accident.”