Portland committee hears update on federal settlement, DOJ requests and timeline for final termination

Deputy City Attorney Heidi Brown told the Community and Public Safety Committee on Nov. 18 that the city’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice — entered into the record in 2014 following an investigation into patterns and practices by the Portland Police Bureau — remains active but has been amended and partially terminated in places.

The committee heard historical context from Reverend Dr. Leroy Haynes Jr. of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, who traced the coalition’s advocacy through high-profile cases that prompted the DOJ review. Brown then outlined the settlement’s substantive sections — including use of force (with particular attention to taser policy), training, community-based mental health services, crisis intervention, an employee information system (EIS), officer accountability, and community engagement via the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP). "We entered into and the court accepted this in 2014," Brown said, describing the compliance and monitoring framework.

Brown said the city achieved substantial compliance on many paragraphs in 2020 but that…