Committee refers Portland Police Bureau 2024 annual report to full council amid calls for clearer racial-disparity and use-of-force data

The Community and Public Safety Committee voted July 15 to refer the Portland Police Bureau’s 2024 annual report to full City Council for consideration after hearing a presentation from bureau leaders and public testimony urging greater transparency on race and use-of-force data.

Assistant Chief Amanda McMillan presented the report, saying the bureau has focused in recent years on "transforming the dynamic between the police and the people we serve, reducing crime and the fear of crime, and organizational growth and development." The report highlights operational changes in 2024 — including the full deployment of body-worn cameras, expanded community engagement and data-driven enforcement missions — and statistical changes such as a 22% decline in shooting incidents from the prior year and a 12% decrease in reported property crimes.

The bureau also reported operational details and metrics: it recorded 209,000 calls for service in 2024 and said use-of-force incidents occurred in 0.17% of those calls. The presentation noted six uses of deadly force in 2024 (three fatal, three non-fatal), one in-custody death, and the bureau’s stated practice of providing video from recent deadly-force incidents within 14 days where appropriate. Assistant Chief McMillan said investigators and the district attorney’s office reviewed the deadly-force events.

McMillan and precinct commanders described reductions in some crime categories, highlighted seizure of more than 1,400 firearms in 2024 (a 17% increase from the prior year), and outlined mission-based policing that bureau leaders said contributed to declines in vehicle theft and other offenses. The bureau said staffing remains a challenge: it hired four sworn members and 35 professional staff in 2024, processed roughly the same number of separations, and reported about 87 vacancies at the time of the presentation. The bureau also reported increased recruitment activity in 2025, with higher monthly applicant averages and nearly 90 officers in training.

A recurring point of committee and public questioning centered on the bureau’s stops data and its choice of benchmarks. PPB’s strategic services division uses an "injury collision" benchmark and a crime-victimization benchmark, rather than a straight population benchmark, to analyze whether groups are overrepresented in stops. Several council members and community speakers said that choice is confusing and urged PPB to present stop data in additional formats — including veil-of-darkness analysis or simple population comparisons — to make disparities easier for the public to interpret.

Public commenters pressed for more data in the written annual report itself. Adelia Zuckerman (identified in testimony as a PSUP co-chair) and other witnesses urged the committee to include stop-data analyses in the document and to provide fuller explanation of how benchmarks are selected. Portland Copwatch and the Mental Health Alliance said the annual report lacked expected detail on discipline and internal-affairs outcomes and urged greater attention to deaths in custody and the needs of people experiencing behavioral health crises.

After public testimony the committee took a procedural vote. Councilor Christopher Kanal moved to refer the report to the full council; Councilor Smith seconded. The referral passed 3–1 with one member absent. Councilor Susana Murillo voted no and cited concerns that the report did not adequately address racial disparities and use-of-force accountability.

The bureau said it will present the document to full council, noting the requirement under a Department of Justice settlement agreement to move the report through the public process. Committee members said they expect follow-up briefings on clearance rates, more detailed stop-data presentations and additional information about deaths in custody and internal-affairs conclusions in future sessions.