Mental Health Association of Portland

By Steve Duin, The Oregonian, May 6, 2013

In chopping CATC — the Crisis Assessment Treatment Center — off at the knees, Mayor Charlie Hales is only looking to finish what the Portland police started.

What remains to be seen is whether the cops’ stubbornness about the mental health facility is driving (a) the city’s budget priorities, and (b) a quick wedge between the mayor and Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen.

The timing of Hales’ announcement to eliminate $634,000 in CATC funding couldn’t have been worse, breaking even as the city announced a $2.3 million settlement for a deplorable cop shooting that left William Kyle Monroe, who suffers with bipolar disorder, permanently disabled.

But the mayor’s move also added to the perception — shared by the U.S. Department of Justice and many local mental-health advocates — that the police bureau considers its dealing with the mentally ill a colossal inconvenience.

After Cogen and former Mayor Sam Adams opened CATC with great ceremony in 2011, the cops acted as if the triage center didn’t exist.

Capt. Sara Westbrook, head of the behavioral health unit, dismissed the center as unworkable for police last spring, and remained wedded to her objections on its admission guidelines long after CATC revised them.

As The Oregonian’s Maxine Bernstein reported over the weekend, many patrol officers never knew CATC was an option. Never mind that almost 200 of the 1,300 people treated there were first dropped off by police at local emergency rooms.

“This wasn’t designed to make the cops’ lives easier,” Cogen reminds us. “This was designed for people having a mental health crisis. The real focus is that these 1,300 people have a place to go so they don’t run into the cops.”

Small wonder if Cogen feels betrayed. He partnered with Adams on CATC funding when partnering with Adams wasn’t easy. Briefed on potential budget cuts by Hales, he asked for one lone reprieve.

“I said to him very clearly, ‘The one I really hope you don’t cut is CATC,’” Cogen said.

The preliminary proposal was submitted for Hales’ consideration by Commissioners Nick Fish and Steve Novick.

Fish is holding fast to his original diagnosis.

“We were charged with being provocative,” he said Sunday. “This is a healthy debate, and long overdue. And the more I look into this, the more I hear that there have been a lot of misgivings about CATC.”

Novick has a different take. Given the city’s financial stake in the center, he says, “It puzzles me that Sam never followed up to see if the cops were using it.”

Even more striking, he says, were the contradictory narratives that city commissioners heard from the police and county leaders garnered from their people about the facility.  “From the very beginning,” Novick says, “there have been two conflicting messages.”

Westbrook continued to argue CATC wouldn’t accept people who were a threat to themselves or others long after the center was beaming up a different message with the bat signal.

As Kevin McChesney at Telecare, which operates the center for the county, told Bernstein, its doors are open to anyone short of “the person swinging an ax.”

If there’s a lesson here about police bureau mulishness, there’s another one about leadership and attention to detail.

“Normally, the efficient and right thing for a political leader to do is listen to your staff people and trust what they’re telling you,” Novick said.

“But you have two organizations here — mental health and the police — who don’t naturally speak the same language. They got locked into these positions over the last year and a half.”

Which proves? “There are situations where political leaders need to dig into the weeds and say, ‘What’s going on here?’ Read the documents. See if there isn’t a misunderstanding instead of blindly following what their people are telling them.”

Novick met with Cogen on Monday. Off what he heard, he said, “There’s a stronger argument that the city should fund a portion of the CATC than I thought there was based on the information I had last week.”

Is that cause for Portland cops to join the conversation? Time will tell. Historians are skeptical.

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, April 30, 2013

Dane Reister

The city of Portland will pay $2.3 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed after Police Officer Dane Reister wounded William Kyle Monroe in 2011 when he mistakenly fired lethal rounds at him from a beanbag shotgun.

The proposed settlement was reached after city attorneys and Monroe’s lawyer met Monday in a mediation session with U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken.

It must still go before the City Council for approval. If accepted, it would mark the city’s largest individual settlement in its history.

“Honestly, I think in the grand scheme of things, it’s not an unfair settlement,” Thane Tienson, Monroe’s lawyer, said Tuesday.

Tienson said the money will help pay for Monroe’s ongoing medical costs and lost wages.

Reister’s gunshots fractured Monroe’s pelvis and 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, according to Monroe’s suit.

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

The day after the shooting, then-Mayor Sam Adams called the shooting “a tragic mistake.”

Mayor Charlie Hales said Tuesday he was aware that a proposed settlement had been reached.

Chief Mike Reese released a statement: “The Police Bureau continues to hope for Mr. Monroe’s full recovery and the Bureau recognizes that this incident has been extremely difficult for everyone involved.”

Though Tienson said he believed a higher settlement could be justified given Monroe’s permanently disabling injuries, he added, “There’s value in settling a case early on. Mr. Monroe wanted to put this case behind him and get on with his life, and that’s a decision I respect.”

Tienson said he also hopes the large settlement spurs substantial change within the Police Bureau — “not only in training, but in the way the Police Bureau responds to claims of people who are in emotional crisis. The record speaks for itself.

“We’d like to think another multimillion-dollar settlement involving claims of excessive force by Portland police against someone who has a mental illness will provide further pressure on the city” to get reforms underway stemming from a recent U.S. Department of Justice investigation of Portland police, he said.

The investigation found that Portland police engage in a pattern of excessive force against people with mental illness.

Monroe’s federal lawsuit accused Reister, Police Chief Mike Reese and the city of violating Monroe’s civil rights through false arrest, assault and negligence.

The suit alleged 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 contended that the bureau had 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,” Tienson wrote in the suit.

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.

Four months after the shooting, the police chief 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.

The suit had called for Reister to lose his job. That’s not part of the proposed settlement, Tienson said.

“That’s a decision the city has yet to decide,” he said. “I think my client would like to see that happen.”

Nearly two years after the shooting, Reister has faced no discipline and remains on paid administrative leave.

He also faces pending criminal charges. Reister has pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with third- and fourth-degree assault. 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.

Judge Aiken has brokered other large settlements between plaintiffs and the city of Portland.

She helped broker a $1.2 million settlement in February 2012 between the city and the family of Aaron Campbell, an unarmed African American man shot in the back in 2010 during a police standoff. She also helped in the mediation that led to the $1.6 million settlement between the city and family of James P. Chasse Jr. in May 2010, the largest settlement then in the city’s history.

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.

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.”

By Brian Lindstrom, in the Portland Tribune, Feb. 21, 2013

Brian Lindstrom

As parents of a 7- and an 8-year-old, my wife Cheryl Strayed and I often discuss what we hope to impart to our children.

At the top of that list is resilience, which I define not only as the ability to persevere despite obstacles but also as the capacity to extend some key element of your essential being beyond the vicissitudes and surfaces of day-to-day life.

James Chasse was resilient, and the opportunity to share that and other of his defining characteristics with a large audience was one of the main reasons for making the documentary “Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse.”

Many of you know Chasse’s name through the headline “Man with schizophrenia dies in police custody.” Perhaps you followed the story through the grand jury and civil lawsuit phases, and perhaps you wondered how he received 26 fractures to 16 ribs.

The first task of the film was to delve into James’ life, adding necessary dimension, depth and nuance to a person that — through no fault of his own — was now being defined by how he died. In making “Alien Boy,” I wanted to define James by how he lived.

One of the brightest parts of James’ life was his participation in Portland’s early punk music scene. Embraced by fellow outsiders and artists, he flourished, publishing his fanzine The Oregon Organizm, writing and recording songs as lead singer of The Combos, and playing muse to Greg Sage of the Wipers and Kim Kincaid of the Neo Boys, inspiring the songs “Alien Boy” and “Nothing to Fear.”

How many of us can say one song was written about us? James had two.

A measured account

James Chasse

The onset of schizophrenia made it nearly impossible for James to maintain those relationships, though he valiantly tried, writing a heartbreakingly brave note to an old friend from his punk days, “I thought I’d try to explain who I am….”

As so often happens with people suffering from severe and persistent mental illness, his behavior put people off and his interactions became confined to family members, mental health professionals and the rare person willing to endure the discomfort of reaching across the chasm of schizophrenia. One such brave, kind soul was Russell Sacco, a retired physician who attended the same church as James.

“He’s just a person and I’m just a person, so I went up and talked to him,” Dr. Sacco explains.

After weeks of no response, one day James replied “hello” to Dr. Sacco and a dialogue began. If only the police officers had approached James in a similar spirit that fateful day — or, absent that, ignored him altogether and not have initiated a foot pursuit that the Portland Police Bureau’s Training Division would later rule should never have happened.

The other task of the film was to take a clear-eyed, calm, measured account of how and why James Chasse died. Using eyewitness accounts, audiotape of the police investigation, police evidence photos, official court documents, footage from jail surveillance cameras, interviews of Medical Examiner Dr. Karen Gunson, recent Portland Mayor Sam Adams, then-Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler, journalists Matt Davis and Anna Griffin, attorney Tom Steenson and James’ mother and father, and videotaped depositions from Officer Christopher Humphreys, Sgt. Kyle Nice and Deputy Bret Burton, the film presents a relentless, enraging cascade of actions, decisions, omissions and lies on the part of police that led to James Chasse’s death.

Then-Mayor Tom Potter and then-Police Chief Rosie Sizer attempted to divert attention from the actions of Humphreys, Nice and Burton by framing what happened to James Chasse as a failure of the mental health system.

Nothing could be further from the truth. James was a success story, living independently and managing things well. He went off his meds, which is part of the disease of mental illness, but his case manager was aware of this and asked Project Respond to do a welfare visit accompanied by a police officer.

The welfare visit revealed that James was in a bad way, and Project Respond’s Ela Howard asked Officer Worthington to file a report flagging James as mentally ill so that if the police ever encountered him again, they would know to call Project Respond rather than try to deal with James by themselves.

Officer Worthington didn’t file the report. This was on Sept. 15, 2006, two days before James died. The mental health system is not to blame for James’s tragic death.

Fueling change

Last Friday evening, at the Northwest Children’s Theater on Northwest 18th and Everett, a mere 100 feet from where Officer Humphreys first encountered James, we had a party after “Alien Boy” premiered at Cinema 21 as part of the Portland International Film Festival.

I had the privilege of introducing Mayor Charlie Hales to James Chasse Sr. What followed was an open conversation between a still grieving father and a new mayor about what steps the city can take to guard against this kind of tragedy happening again.

I’m in Missoula, Mont., where the film just played in the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The audience was enraged — may that rage fuel positive change.

But rage will only get us so far. Let Russell Sacco’s simple, wise words guide us: “He’s just a person, and I’m just a person….”

In that vein, we have to ask about the toll all this has taken on the officers involved. Have they received the necessary mental health help such a traumatic experience requires? How has this experience changed them? What have they learned? Are they still capable of doing their jobs? Do we, the public, still have confidence in them?

Portland resident Brian Lindstrom’s third feature-length documentary, “Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse,” will play Sunday through March 7 at Cinema 21 in Portland.

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, Dec. 19, 2012

Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner

The Portland police union is trying to block a negotiated agreement that requires major reforms to police practices, which city officials spent months hammering out to avert stiff federal penalties.

Anil S. Karia, the attorney for the Portland Police Association, filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the the city’s settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The union argues that the changes to Portland police use of force policies, training and oversight undermine the collective bargaining rights of union members.

He requested oral argument on the union motion to intervene as a defendant, alongside the City of Portland, in the civil suit the federal government filed against the city on Monday.

The city is “restraining and coercing” union members by requiring them to comply with the settlement, even though it violates the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the union, Karia wrote in a 36-page memorandum filed in court.

READ – Memorandum in Support

Mayor Sam Adams, who negotiated the settlement, disagreed.

In an e-mail, Adams Wednesday said the settlement “accepts that certain provisions of the agreement will be subject to collective bargaining.”

“If any part of the agreement is impacted by collective bargaining, the city will work with the DOJ to determine how to proceed,” he wrote.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon has scheduled a status hearing for 9:30 a.m. on Friday. But he gave federal prosecutors extra time — until Jan. 22 — to file a response to the union’s motion.

The settlement agreement needs the judge’s approval.

The union’s legal maneuver is similar to one that the Los Angeles Police Protective League successfully used a decade ago to intervene in a use-of-force settlement.

A consent decree between the city of Los Angeles and the federal government was submitted in federal court after the U.S. Department of Justice found Los Angeles police engaged in excessive force, false arrests and improper searches and seizures. A federal judge denied the union’s motion to intervene, but a federal appellate court in April 2002 reversed the ruling.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Los Angeles police league’s rights to negotiate the terms and conditions of its officers’ employment gave the union an interest in the consent decree.

Karia cited the federal appellate ruling in the Los Angeles police case in his motion before Judge Simon.

Portland’s police union may not be the only group seeking to challenge the settlement agreement.

Members of the Albina Ministerial Alliance’s Coalition for Justice and Police Reform pledged to attend Friday’s court hearing to let the judge know of the community’s “profound disappointment with this DOJ settlement,” according to a post on the group’s Facebook page.

The union action came one day after the federal government formally filed a lawsuit against the City of Portland in U.S. District Court, alleging excessive force by police, as well as a proposed settlement that calls for an array of police reforms.

The court filings stem from the U.S. Department of Justice’s nearly 15-month investigation into use of force by Portland police. The inquiry found police engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force against people suffering from or perceived to have a mental illness.

The settlement, approved by the City Council on Nov. 14, calls for widespread changes to Portland police policies on use of force, Tasers, training, supervision and oversight. It also calls for a restructuring of police crisis intervention training and quicker internal inquiries into alleged police misconduct.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Billy Williams, who was part of the Justice Department’s investigative team, said the team conducted separate conference calls with both the Portland Police Association and the Portland Police Commanding Officers Assocation “to solicit their input on specific remedial measures,” according to his legal memo filed in court. Their input was considered, he noted.

The police union also filed a grievance with the city after the council approved the settlement. It contends that city officials “in bad faith” reached the agreement without negotiating changes that affect officers’ working conditions, workload, safety-related training, disciplinary procedures, and an officer’s right to legal representation.

The new use of force standards and restrictions on Taser use “will jeopardize officer safety,” and officers “will be unreasonably limited in the force tools available to them to safely resolve incidents,” according to the union’s motion.

In the Los Angeles case, by the time the 9th Circuit ruled on the union’s appeal, the federal district court in Los Angeles already had approved the consent decree. The appellate court said its ruling did not require the district court “to turn back the clock or rescind the consent degree.” Instead, it allowed the police union to intervene from that date forward.

Portland’s mayor, who had hoped to have the agreement signed by a judge before he left office by year’s end, said the city needs to move head.

“Our perspective,” he said, “is that the city of Portland needs to begin its efforts to accomplish the reforms called for in this agreement immediately.”