Portland Police Body-Cam Pilot Bogged

By Cooper Banks

The Portland Police Bureau continues to struggle to make progress on body cameras.  The bureau had hoped to have a policy proposal in place by the end of 2019, but a multitude of challenges have kept the body-worn camera program bogged down.

I caught up with PPB’s body-worn camera pilot program manager, Tammy Mayer.  I asked her what she could tell me about the updated timeline of the project.

“It’s going to take as long as it takes”, Mayer said.  “Obviously, there are a lot of intricacies to it.  There is a lot of discussions because there are some emotions on both sides (of the issue).”

Mayer adds that it’s difficult to, “get everyone in the room for two hours,” to hash out every policy detail.

Other, much smaller police departments have been quicker to bring body cameras online.  Just last month, police in Pendleton, OR did it. 

According to KPTV, the PPB program still has roughly $2M at its disposal.

Of course, there are major concerns around privacy.

There are other questions as well; When does the camera need to be on?  When does it need to be off?  When can officers review body camera footage?  Can PPB supervisors review body cam video randomly for performance reviews?  Will the public have access to the video (public records)?

PPB has addressed all of this through community meetings and Mayer says they’ve received great input.  But program managers, along with Assistant Chief Chris Davis, still have to convince leaders with the Portland Police Association to agree with PPB and, particularly the city’s brand new Police Chief, Jamie Resch.

“The union had an idea and we were working on a compromise when the change in leadership (former Chief Danielle Outlaw’s departure) happened,” Mayer told me.

Mayer says Chief Resch has different thoughts about body cameras.  Mayer’s team sat down with the new Chief and will now take Resch’s thoughts back to the union for further talks.

Asked whether the issue is going back to the drawing board, Mayer answers, “it’s not”.

A meeting scheduled for Thursday was aimed at updating Portland City Council members on the PPB body camera pilot, but…Mayer tells me that meeting was canceled.

She says talks will continue in mid-March.