ACLU Submits Comments to Federal Court in Anticipation of February Hearing
February 3, 2014 - On Friday the ACLU submitted comments to the federal court in support of a Settlement Agreement between Portland Police Bureau, the City of Portland, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the Portland Police’s unconstitutional practice of using excessive force against people with mental illness or experiencing mental health crisis. The comments come at the request of Judge Michael Simon, who on February 18th will hold a Fairness Hearing in his courtroom to determine whether the pending Settlement Agreement is fair and adequate to address the claims made by the DOJ after a lengthy investigation.
The Settlement Agreement is by no means perfect. We share concerns with other community advocates for police reform that the Agreement does not adequately address needed changes to the system of accountability for officer misconduct. And we fear that without stronger “teeth,” even the modest changes to the Portland Police that are mandated in the Agreement will never be implemented.
We have asked Judge Simon to specify two things in his ruling, at which point we are prepared to support the Agreement and begin the hard work of true reform.
- We ask that, if the Portland Police fail to implement the changes in the Settlement, the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform have the authority to act on behalf of the Portland community and report any non-compliance back to the judge. Right now, this authority is not clear and only official parties to the Agreement (the Police, the City, and the DOJ) can tell the judge that the Agreement is not being followed.
- We have also asked that the judge provide further guidance to the parties and to the community as to what “compliance” actually looks like. All eyes are on the Portland Police during this very critical time, and it’s important that we all know how to measure success.
Submission of written testimony, which you can read in full by clicked the documents under “Related Documents” next to this post, is in anticipation of the February 18th Fairness Hearing in Judge Simon’s courtroom.
For more information on the Hearing, visit the federal court’s website: http://ord.uscourts.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1046
