PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) — The City of Portland and the Portland Police Association have released their “final offers” in a dispute over how to implement body-worn cameras for officers, and the documents show that the deadlock stems from a single sticking point: whether officers can review camera footage before writing reports on use-of-force incidents.
The city and the union have been bargaining for months over body camera policy language, one of the hurdles in an implementation process that has dragged on for years and left Portland as the only major U.S. city without camera-equipped officers.
City officials announced Tuesday that the two sides had reached an impasse and would need an arbitrator from the Oregon Employment Relations Board to step in.
The city and the union both acknowledged on Friday that the officer review language — section 11.2 of the overall draft — is the sole piece of the policy where the two sides have failed to reach an agreement.
What the city is proposing
In the city’s proposal, there are separate guidelines for reviewing footage following an incident, depending on what occurred:
- Incidents that don’t involve use of force by police
- Incidents that involve use of force by police
- Incidents that involve use of deadly force by police, or when someone has died while in police custody
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, unless the police chief authorizes it.
The city’s final offer document is embedded below. Section 11.2 is on the first page:
The police union’s argument
The police union’s proposed version is much shorter and simply states that officers will be able to view their own camera recordings “before writing a report of any kind (e.g. force, general offense, etc.).”
The union argued that allowing officers to review footage will make reports more comprehensive, and would be consistent with the camera policies of most other law enforcement agencies in Oregon and throughout the country.
The union’s final offer is embedded below, with section 11.2 on the second page:
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.