Criminal System Reform

This year saw more battles, advocacy, and victories than ever before — look back on them through some of our biggest blogs.

 Do I sleep in the park and violate the camping ban, or do I trespass onto private property? Where can I go to the bathroom? Where can I set my stuff down without attracting attention from police?Homelessness and housing are a growing problem in Oregon.  The region has seen the third highest increase in homelessness nationwide, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2015, HUD counted 13,100 adults and children experiencing homelessness in Oregon. Of those Oregonians experiencing homelessness, HUD found one-in-ten was a military veteran, one-in-seven was identified as having a serious mental illness

The ACLU of Oregon and Don’t Shoot Portland are petitioning the Oregon Attorney General to review the Oregon Department of Justice (ODOJ)’s refusal to disclose public records relating to the Oregon TITAN Fusion Center (OTFC).

We’re on the Hill this week telling Congress to fund real solutions

Don’t Shoot Portland and ACLU of Oregon are two Oregon nonprofits dedicated to advocating for racial justice, police accountability, and the right to protest. In 2024, both organizations submitted public records requests to illuminate how Oregon TITAN Fusion Center (OFTC) works with other law enforcement agencies to monitor and surveil Oregonians engaged in lawful advocacy and protest — including for racial justice. The OTFC is a federally funded domestic surveillance program housed under the Oregon Department of Justice’s Criminal Intelligence Unit that works closely with federal law enforcement agencies like the increasingly notorious Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The OTFC operates as part of a vast nationwide network of about 80 similar fusion center programs nationwide. For two decades, OTFC has operated with little oversight or transparency while purporting to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about “terrorism” and crime in Oregon. However, the OTFC, like other fusion centers across the country, has a checkered history of abuses. ODOJ withheld nearly 2000 records from its response — largely the ones it said the ACLU would be “most interested in” — based on its “Third Agency Rule,” which it said requires OTFC to keep records it receives from other agencies confidential. The Petition argues that rule cannot displace ODOJ’s obligations under the Public Records Law. The disputed records include “Criminal Intelligence Unit Bulletin[s]” issued by the Portland Police Bureau that name Don’t Shoot Portland (sometimes referred to as Don’t Shoot PDX) and “Criminal Intelligence Unit Protest [and] Significant Event Information Briefs” that name Sean Kealiher, a founding organizer of Don’t Shoot PDX’s community action plan who was killed in 2019 at age 23. The existence of the records suggests additional evidence of OTFC’s improper surveillance of people and groups engaged in protected political and noncriminal activities. Plaintiffs urge the Attorney General to reject ODOJ’s reliance on the Third Agency Rule as blanket authority to withhold records from the public. The people of Oregon deserve transparency about how state, local, and federal police cooperation affects their rights and freedoms.

Dive into the ACLU of Oregon’s 2023 Legislative Session policy priority agenda. See you in the legislature, from January to June 2023.

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