Portland Police Chief Bob Day is pledging an “equitable and safe” police response to possible protests amid the “heightened tensions” of the upcoming 2024 elections.
The promise comes in response to widespread criticism of the Police Bureau’s handling of 2020 protests, which was seen as both too lenient and too harsh, depending on the observer.
Critics of the Police Bureau found it relied too heavily on tear gas, projectiles, hand-thrown rubber-ball explosives and other distraction devices that harmed peaceful protesters. As of January, the city had paid out nearly $2.7 million to resolve dozens of injury claims related to the 2020 protests.
At the same time, business owners and others deplored the extensive property damage that accompanied some protests.
In a video message posted Tuesday, Day acknowledged this tightrope.
“It’s super important to all of us that we maintain a balance between free speech and appropriate behavior that does not lend itself to criminal activity,” Day said on YouTube.
To achieve this, officers will be “canceling days off,” and the Police Bureau’s non-sworn staff will be increasing their support for officers, Day said without elaborating on those roles.
“We have been diligently preparing all members of the organization for appropriate response to demonstrations, crowd control and the exercising of our First Amendment rights,” Day said.
The 2016 presidential election is also informing the Police Bureau’s approach. Several days of protests broke out in Portland after Donald Trump won that year, and some of the demonstrations turned violent.
Much of the response to election-related protests this year will fall to the Police Bureau’s Rapid Response Team. The unit was reestablished earlier this summer after it disbanded in a wave of resignations, and police officials have promised a new way forward for the specialized crowd-control unit.
Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, who is running for mayor, said rebuilding the crowd-control unit is essential for the election to “protect First Amendment rights and not disrupt proper First Amendment exercise, but at the same token, protect the city from property damage and arson and some of the other things that we’ve seen in the past.”
The team became the symbol of the bureau’s response to 2020 protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. All of its officers quit the unit in 2021, after one officer accused of striking a protester in the head with a baton was charged with fourth-degree assault. The charge was later dismissed when the officer went through a “restorative justice” process with the protester and recorded a video apology.
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