Police Internal Investigations Auditing Committee

MINUTES

June 8, 2000

Approved: July 13, 2000

 

Citizen Advisors Present: Charles Ford, Presiding; Denise Stone (Vice Chair); Robert Ueland; Ric Alexander; Shirlie Karl; Robert Wells;; Jose Martinez, Dapo Sobomehin; Gene Bales; Kitsy Brown Mahoney; Leora Mahoney (arrived late)

Citizen Advisors Absent: Tou Cha; Les Frank

City Staff Present: Capt. Bret Smith, IAD; Sgt. Steve Bottcher, IAD; Sgt. Suzanne Whisler, IAD; Sgt. Jay Drum, IAD; Commander Findley (Central Precinct); Michael Hess, PIIAC Examiner; Greg Pluchos (PPA); Tom Mack (PPA)

Media Present: Dan Handelman (Portland Copwatch); Janet Marcley-Hayes (Portland Free Press)

This meeting was held in the Multnomah Arts Center in Southwest Portland.

Vice-chair Denise Stone opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. PIIAC Citizen Advisors and City Staff introduced themselves.

Mike Hess stated that the minutes of the May 11 meeting were not yet available for review.

PIIAC Examiner Hess stated that the Appellant for this case has called in stating that he was not feeling well and requested that his case be heard the following month.

PIIAC Examiner Hess stated that he had not participated in the review of this case because the Officer A is a friend of his. Advisor Wells withdrew from the proceedings because he knew the Appellants.

Advisor Denise Stone presented this case. She stated that the Letter of Disposition contained incorrect information about the Appellant having had a conversation with an IAD sergeant. She also stated that the IAD file was lacking photographs that were mentioned in Officer A’s Incident Report.

After hearing from the Appellant and her sons, the Advisors discussed the case and voted to accept Miss Stone’s recommendation to return the case to IAD for investigation. Y = 8 (Ford, Stone, Martinez, Brown-Mahoney, Alexander, Bales, Sobomehin, Karl);

N = 1 (Ueland). Mahoney did not vote because she arrived late.

Dr. Samuel Walker, Head of the Criminal Justice Department, University of Nebraska at Omaha, addressed presented a training session regarding police oversight on the national level and how Portland’s system (PIIAC) compares to other cities. He stated that this was the first time that he had observed a PIIAC hearing and that he was greatly impressed with the way PIIAC conducts public input. He said that he has never seen anything like this in any other city.

Chairman Ford announced that the next meeting of the PIIAC advisory committee would be held on July 13, 2000, at 6:30 p.m. in the Rose Room of Portland City Hall.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by

 

Michael H. Hess, D.D.S.

PIIAC Examiner