City of Portland and police union reach agreement on body cams

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) — The City of Portland and the police officers union have reached a long-awaited agreement on the adoption of body-worn cameras, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office announced Thursday night.

A statement from Wheeler’s office did not detail any terms of the agreement — and the devil has always been in the details.

Portland remains the largest city in the U.S. without body cams on its city police officers. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 80% of large police departments across the country use body cams.

While funding for body cams was once the stated reason why Portland had yet to adopt them, more recent hang-ups have come as a result of disagreements between the City of Portland and the Portland Police Association on policy.

The statement from Mayor Wheeler’s office said the following, in part:

“This policy has been a top priority for Mayor Wheeler’s administration for years, and he and his fellow Commissioners are pleased to have achieved this milestone. The City and the PPA have long agreed that body worn cameras are an important tool for supporting and enhancing public trust in law enforcement.

“It was important to all parties that our policy was consistent with common practice, supported the unique needs of our city, and addressed privacy and transparency concerns highlighted by the community. It was also vital that the policy is usable for officers and supported by science.

“This agreement is the result of positive collaboration between the City and its police officers. We are excited to implement this important tool as soon as possible, and continue to provide opportunities for our officers to demonstrate the work they do every day to make Portland safer for everyone.”

After reaching an impasse in negotiations in February and heading toward arbitration, the city and the PPA released the details of their “final offers.” The two sides couldn’t agree on when and if officers should be able to review body cam footage before doing a written report.

The PPA wanted no restrictions for officers on reviewing body cam footage whatsoever, even in cases of deadly force.

The city wanted some restrictions on pre-reviewing body cam footage for use of force incidents, with more stringent rules for deadly incidents. Under that proposal, officers would be allowed to view footage before writing reports that don’t involve force.

After incidents that involve police force, officers would be allowed to view the video only after first providing “a full and candid account of the incident to a supervisor,” which would also be recorded.

If someone died during a police force incident, officers wouldn’t be allowed to view the footage at all under the city’s offer, unless the police chief were to authorize it.

PPA President Aaron Schmautz insisted that unrestricted pre-review is the standard for the “vast majority of agencies” across the country, although The Story found examples of policies similar to the City of Portland’s offer in some comparably-sized cities. In Oregon, most agencies do appear to allow unrestricted pre-review, with the notable exception of the Salem Police Department under its new body cam program.

The argument against pre-review, which comes from organizations like the ACLU. Officers might be motivated in use of force incidents to mold their narrative of events to what can be seen or heard on the video — which often can’t capture the full scene — rather than delivering a report from memory, which they do currently.

The PPA has argued that reviewing body cam footage can only improve an officer’s accuracy in writing reports, and that withholding the ability to review video might serve as a way to unnecessarily snare officers when innocuous lapses in memory occur.

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