PPB Announces Asian Pacific Islander Advisory Council

June 03, 2021 14:37

The Portland Police Bureau is excited to announce the establishment of the Asian Pacific Islander Advisory Council to the Chief's Office.

APIA council members, Chief Chuck Lovell and Assistant Chief Mike Leasure and other PPB members and business community partners gathered yesterday at the Fubonn Shopping Center to formally announce this new partnership which will focus on working together on justice reforms and concentrate on the APIA community's safety issues.

"I am so honored to have this new partnership and relationship with the Asian Pacific Islander community," said Chief Lovell. "This foundation will work to help us make better informed decisions about public service, what service should look like and how we can best support the needs of this community."

Assistant Chief Leasure, who is a Chief's envoy with the APIA Council, highlighted the Bureau's commitment to fostering and earning trust with the APIA communities: "As a member of the APIA community, I look forward to representing the Portland Police Bureau and working with the APIA Advisory Council to create a safe and thriving community."

The APIA council chairs shared the following message about the spirit and mission of this Council:

"We are the Asian & Pacific Islander Advisory Council, and we are a community-driven, community-led Council to the Portland Police Bureau that is willing and committed to building a lasting relationship with all Bureau members, fostering a two-way learning and cultural growth; valuing mutual understanding and respect, and we are coming together to create a safer and thriving community.

"We are focusing on long-term solutions with our APIA communities that live in pockets and various neighborhoods; this is not just about the Jade District, old China Town, but it's about our collective efforts to address livability, well-being, and safety of over 100 different APIA groups in the Metro area.

"We recognize that justice reforms cannot be done in silos, and no single entity or stakeholder can carry it out alone; instead, we need to work in concert with one another, which is the focus of our APIA Council - having our members, who represent wider marginalized APIA communities, work together with Police Bureau members to addressing not just primary community safety issues, but get to know one another, see each other as human first, and focus on shared values, shared humanity and strive toward building and preserving universal human rights goals such as dignity, fairness, equality, respect, and independence.
We want to directly participate, guide, and carry out justice reforms while advocating for the needs and rights of our APIA families. We want to promote APIA voices and embed them in the process of justice improvement."

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