Investigators from the Internal Affairs Division began their work after the Grand Jury decision was made. Their investigation of what happened to James Chasse remains – after seventeen months – unfinished and no estimation of the cost or of the finishing date for this investigation has been made public.
Because of the conflict of interest of officer investigating fellow officers, the city created the Independent Police Review. The IPR monitors Internal Affairs investigations on civilian complaints. It has the ability to ask them to do more investigation and sometimes does. It has the ability to conduct an independent investigation from the get-go on civilian complaints but has never done so.
The IPR seems to have power to act, but has been widely criticized for not acting. The IPR waits for police investigations to be concluded prior to opening an independent investigation; thus what happened to James Chasse has not been reviewed by the IPR.
Even more troubling is the IPR has no obligation under the current ordinance to review the case, but a recent consultant’s report (and the Mayor’s memo in response) suggest they should do independent investigations in cases of public import.
To assure citizens can know police policy and procedure, the Bureau keeps a copy of their Manual of Policy and Procedure online.
Officers can be disciplined and / or terminated by the city, but the union agreements between the various officer unions and the city (and county) may define when and how an officer can be disciplined and / or terminated.
Police officers can be sued in civil court where city attorneys at city expense represent them. The result of all suits has not been tabulated, but Portland CopWatch maintains a list of top settlements.
Report on Portland’s Independent Police Review – Executive Summary, by Eileen Luna-Firebaugh, January 2008 (PDF file)
Report on Portland’s Independent Police Review – Full Report, by Eileen Luna-Firebaugh, January 2008 (PDF file – 168 pages)
Portland CopWatch’s analysis of Luna-Firebaugh’s report – Full Analysis & Summary.
Posted by Jason Renaud 
