Community wants NO vote on Secret Police Contract

Don’t Shoot Portland and others throughout the city call for council to vote no on secret police union contract. Groups claim the contract falls short of real accountability and lacks community input.

It is unusual for an outgoing Mayor to push through a new Police contract, but that is what outgoing Mayor Charlie Hales is doing. The current contract in not up till June of 2017 and a new Mayor takes office in Portland this November. Mayor elect Ted Wheeler would be forced to conduct the first 3 years of his time in office under a contract he did not negotiate. Plus there is the issue of a contested seat on the city council. Current City Commissioner Steve Novick is in a tough reelection fight against community activist and political outsider Chloe Eudaly. Should Novick lose the re-election, as many are now predicting, that could change the council’s support for the contract currently being considered. Eudaly is closely aligned with those calling for reform and increase community input on public safety and police related matters.

Community members are asked to attend the City Council meeting on Wednesday, September 28th at 9:45 a.m. to support a NO vote on the contract. The meeting will be held at Portland City Hall,1221 SW 4th Ave #110.

Don’t Shoot Portland released a statement late last night stating, “ … an agreement of this level of importance should be led by the incoming mayor. It is the incoming mayor and police commissioner that will have to live with this contract, and thus negotiations should occur after they assume office.”

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The changes that many in the community expect to see in a new contract, negotiated by Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler after he takes office, mirror those being sought by citizens across the country.

• Make public all bargaining sessions with the Portland Police Association.
• Fix the binding arbitration clause so that those who are fired, stay fired
• Move deadly force incidents to the civil service board system so that ultimately a judge, not a mere arbitrator, might decide if firing an officer was valid.
• An immediate end to police brutality at peaceful protests because these incidents
• An immediate end to gang enforcement officers being deployed to peaceful protests because Don’t Shoot PDX is not a gang and people have the right to protest without being assumed to be gang members-
• Increased background checks on potential officers
• Don’t allow officers to review body camera footage before writing reports on use of force incidents, period.
• An end to the 48 hour rule, not at the expense of swift, thorough and independent investigations into possible misconduct