Portland Police Bureau - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Portland Police Bureau is the law enforcement agency of the City of Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, the largest city in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

of Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. While oversight of Portland's bureaus shifts among the five City Commissioners

Government of Portland, Oregon

The Government of Portland, Oregon, a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, is based on a city commission government system. Elected officials include a Mayor, a City Council, and a City Auditor. The mayor and commissioners are responsible legislative policy and oversee the various bureaus that...

, the Mayor has historically been assigned to the Police Bureau as the police commissioner

Police commissioner

Commissioner is a senior rank used in many police forces and may be rendered Police Commissioner or Commissioner of Police. In some organizations, the commissioner is a political appointee, and may or may not actually be a professional police officer. In these circumstances, there is often a...

Services

The Portland Police Bureau is the largest city law enforcement agency in Oregon. The bureau has approximately 1,000 full-time officers, up to 100 reserves, 50 cadets

Law Enforcement Exploring

Law Enforcement Exploring also known as Police Explorers is a career-oriented program that gives young adults the opportunity to explore a career in law enforcement by working with local law enforcement agencies. Founded on July 12, 1973, it is one of the Exploring programs from Learning for Life,...

, and 300 civilian positions. The Portland Police Bureau provides numerous services to the citizens of Portland and the tri-county area, including:

Patrol

9-1-1
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...

and emergency response.

Detectives

Portland Police Bureau detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

s are members of the tri-county major crimes division, as such they will assist other agencies. Portland Police detectives work a variety of task such as, child sexual assault, burglary and other property crimes, prostitution, narcotics, homicide, traffic crash investigation, hit and runs, auto theft, and other felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

crimes.

Cadets

Cadets are young men and woman between the ages of 16 and 21 who serve as sworn uniformed volunteers of the Police Bureau. Cadets assist with community service events, parades, crowd control, security, and other special details. Cadets also perform cadet patrols consisting of two cadets in a marked police car assisting officers at traffic collisions, perimeters, paperwork, and taking traffic-related 911 calls. Cadets also ride with police officers as partners, which allows them to perform more tasks.

Air Support Unit

The Air Support Unit is used for high risk situations, or for warrant service. Portland Police Bureau currently owns three planes.

Child Abuse Team

The Child Abuse Team (CAT) investigates reports of child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...

throughout Multnomah County
Multnomah County, Oregon
Multnomah County is one of 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. Though smallest in area, it is the most populous as its county seat, Portland, is the state's largest city...

. CAT is made up of officers and deputies from PPB, Gresham Police, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Troutdale Police Department, Fairview Police Department, CARES Northwest, and Oregon Department of Human Services
Oregon Department of Human Services
The Oregon Department of Human Services is the primary health and human services agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The ODHS was established in 1971 as the Oregon Department of Human Resources but renamed in 1999...

.

Crisis Intervention Team

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) officers are assigned in each precinct and aid in dealing with calls with mentally ill people. These officers receive an additional 40 hours of training in dealing with people with mental illness. The CIT program is modeled after Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

's acclaimed program.

Crisis Response Team

The mission of the Portland Police Bureau’s Crisis Response Team (CRT) is to intervene in traumatic situations which impact individuals, families, and the community at large.

CRT members provide support to victims of crime, sexual assault, and abuse.

Hostage Negotiation Team

The Hostage Negotiation Team (HNT) responds to hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...

situations and uses psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

to resolve situations safely without use of force.

Mounted Patrol Unit

The mounted police
Mounted police
Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and...

unit is primarily used for crowd control at large events.

Rapid Response Team

The Rapid Response Team (RRT) is Portland Police Bureau's riot control
Riot control
Riot control refers to the measures used by police, military, or other security forces to control, disperse, and arrest civilians who are involved in a riot, demonstration, or protest. Law enforcement officers or soldiers have long used non-lethal weapons such as batons and whips to disperse crowds...

team, responding to large political rallies/gatherings.

School Resource Officer

A School Resource Officer (SRO) responds to crimes within any school within Portland Public Schools. Each Portland high school is assigned a specific SRO.

Special Emergency Response Team

The Special Emergency Response Team (SERT), better known as SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...

, responds to incidents involving uncooperative armed suspects (such as barricaded subjects or hostage situations).

Transit Police

About 58 PPB officers operate out of four precincts as transit police on the Trimet
TriMet
TriMet, more formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon...

system. They work alongside private security guards.

Traffic Division

Officers working within the Traffic Division are primarily on motorcycles
Police motorcycle
A police motorcycle is a motorcycle used by various police forces and departments. They may be custom designed to meet the requirements unique of a particular use. A police motorcycle is often called a "motor" by police officers in the United States...

(instead of police cars). Traffic officers daily tasks include enforcement of Driving under the influence
Driving under the influence
Driving under the influence is the act of driving a motor vehicle with blood levels of alcohol in excess of a legal limit...

laws, aggressive driving watch, response to traffic crashes, and enforcing moving violations. Traffic officers also handle all types of law enforcement emergency calls.

Precincts

The Portland Police Bureau divides Portland into three precincts

Police precinct

Police precinct is a form of division of a geographical area patrolled by a police force.Police forces using this format include:* New York Police Department* Boston Police Department* Portland Police Bureau* Seattle Police Department-See also:...

, with each precinct divided into as many as 20 districts. The divisions are generally in accordance with neighborhood association boundaries, but also take into account the number of police calls

9-1-1

9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...

generated in each district. The district serves as the basic unit of territory within the bureau, and most are assigned between one and two patrol officers

Police officer

A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...

. As such, busier districts are geographically smaller and slower districts are larger.

While the number of officers in each precinct is adjusted continually through transfers, new hires and attrition, the infrastructure of each precinct remains essentially the same. A 2007 attempt by Police Chief Sizer to address this by folding the smallest (and least busy) precinct, North Precinct, into its neighbor, Northeast Precinct, was met by a mobilized North Portland community. North Precinct remains, but has been greatly reduced in overall size. Some past attempts to redraw precinct lines have met similar opposition from neighborhood associations .

Ranks

Title	Insignia
Chief of Police Chief of police A Chief of Police is the title typically given to the top official in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. Alternate titles for this position include Commissioner, Superintendent, and Chief constable...
Assistant Chief
Commander Commander Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
Captain Police captain - France :France uses the rank of capitaine for management duties in both uniformed and plain-clothed policing. The rank comes senior to lieutenant and junior to commandant....
Lieutenant
Sergeant Sergeant Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
Police Officer Police officer A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force... /Detective Detective A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

Weapons

All Portland police officers are armed with a 9 mm Glock handgun, either the Glock 17, the Glock 19 or the Glock 26 (in the case of plainclothes assignments). Most uniformed officers' handguns are equipped with SureFire

Surefire

SureFire, LLC. is a Fountain Valley, California company whose primary products are flashlights, headlamps, weapon mounted lights and laser sights. In addition, Surefire also manufactures knives, sound suppressors, Picatinny Rails and batteries. The company is a major supplier of flashlights to the...

or Streamlight

Streamlight

Streamlight is an ISO 9001:2000 registered company located in Eagleville, Pennsylvania that manufactures flashlights powered by various rechargeable and disposable batteries. Streamlight flashlights are often used by public safety professionals such as police officers and fire fighters, and they...

tactical lights. Many uniformed officers also elect to carry a backup handgun; these are not issued by the bureau, but must conform to regulations regarding caliber and type. Besides firearms, all uniform officers carry several non-lethal weapons. Pepper spray

Pepper spray

Pepper spray, also known as OC spray , OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent that is used in riot control, crowd control and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears...

, the ASP

ASP, Inc.

Armament Systems and Procedures, Inc. , is an offensive compliance weapons manufacturer providing equipment to law enforcement and private security companies. ASP is perhaps best known for its telescoping batons.-History:...

expandable baton and the Taser

Taser

A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects "neuromuscular incapacitation" and the devices' mechanism "Electro-Muscular Disruption technology"...

are all required pieces of equipment.

All Portland Police Bureau officers are authorized to carry a Remington 870

Remington 870

The Remington Model 870 is a U.S.-made pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms Company, Inc. It is widely used by the public for sport shooting, hunting, and self-defense. It is also commonly used by law enforcement and military organizations worldwide.-Development:The Remington 870 was...

shotgun (fitted with a tactical flashlight in the foregrip). After completion of bureau courses, officers are also authorized to carry Colt AR-15

AR-15

The AR-15 is a lightweight, 5.56 mm, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed semi-automatic rifle, with a rotating-lock bolt, actuated by direct impingement gas operation. It is manufactured with the extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials....

rifles and Remington 870

Remington 870

shotguns specially intended to fire less-lethal beanbag munitions.

SERT officers are armed with a variety of additional weapons, including H&K MP5A3 submachine gun

Submachine gun

A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...

s, M4A1 rifles with EOTech

EOTech

EOTech designs, manufactures, and markets electro-optic products and systems. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They produce holographic weapon sights for small arms that have been adopted by various military and law enforcement agencies as close quarters battle firearm...

holographic sights

Holographic weapon sight

A holographic weapon sight or holographic diffraction sight is a non-magnifying gun sight that allows the user to look through a glass optical window and see a reticle image superimposed at a distance on the field of view...

.

The .45 Glock 21 was once included in the list of handguns that could be used as a service pistol. However, after two incidents in which Glock 21s exploded in the hands of officers at a shooting range, the Bureau abandoned the Glock 21.

History

The bureau, originally named the Portland Metropolitan Police Force, was established in 1870 by the Portland City Council. The Council appointed Phillip Saunders as its first chief of police, in charge of a force with six patrolmen and one lieutenant, at a time when the population of Portland was 9,000. The first member of the force to die in the line of duty was Officer Charles F. Schoppe, who was shot to death in 1874 while trying to disarm a drunken saloon patron. On April 1, 1908, the bureau became the first in the United States to hire a female police officer, Lola Baldwin, who became the Superintendent of its newly established Women’s Protective Division. In 1915, the "Metropolitan Police Force" changes its name to the Bureau of Police. Four years later, the bureau becomes the first in the USA to use a police radio

Police radio

Police radio is a communications radio system used by law enforcement agencies all over the world.Many such systems are encrypted to prevent eavesdroppers from listening in.-Portable radios:...

. In 1985, Penny Harrington becomes Portland’s first female chief of police, and the first to head a major U.S. police department.

Since 1992, there has been several cases of suspects having died while in custody at the Multnomah County Detention Center. In several high-profile cases, including the James Chasse, Jr. and Kendra James

Kendra James

Kendra James was a 21-year-old African American Oregon woman who was shot to death by police on May 5, 2003. The incident sparked a controversy over the use of deadly force by the Portland Police Bureau in Portland, Oregon....

incidents, the Portland Police Bureau has been accused of engaging in the abuse of force and then covering up the investigation. The accusations have prompted a Copwatch

Copwatch

Copwatch is a network of activist organizations in the United States and Canada that observe and document police activity while looking for signs of police misconduct and police brutality...

program in Portland. However, in both the Chasse and James incidents, neither the Portland Police Bureau or any sworn officer was found guilty of any criminal wrong doing.

Police chiefs past and present

Lucerne Besser (June 18, 1877 - October 29, 1879)
James H. Lappeus (October 30, 1879 - June 30, 1883)
Samuel B. Parrish (December 2 1884 - July 31, 1892)
Ernest W. Spencer (August 1 - November 11, 1892)
Charles H. Hunt (November 12 1892 - July 31, 1894, January 23, 1903 - July 14, 1905)
John W Minto (August 1, 1894 - October 5, 1896)
John Myers (March 11, 1897 - June 8, 1897)
Patrick J. Barry (June 9, 1897-July 2 1897)
Michael J. Clohessy (July 3, 1897 - June 30, 1898)
Daniel M. McLaughlin (July 1, 1898 - Janauary 22, 1903)
Charles Critzmaucher (July 15, 1906 - July 1, 1909)
A.M. Cox (July 2, 1909 - June 30, 1911)
Enoch Glover (July 1, 1911 - June 30 1913)
John Clark (July 1, 1913 - July 31, 1917)
Nelson F. Johnson (August 1. 1917 - November 7, 1919)
Leon V. Jenkins (November 8, 1919 - June 30, 1933, July 1, 1946 - January 5, 1948)
Burton K Lawson (July 1, 1933 - November 30, 1934)
Harry M. Niles (December 1, 1934 - June 30, 1946)

Thomas J. Potter
Tom Potter
Tom Potter is the former Mayor of the city of Portland, Oregon in the United States. He was elected in 2004, and left office in January 2009. He was succeeded by City Commissioner Sam Adams. Prior to Potter's service as mayor, he was Portland's police chief....

(November 19, 1990 - June 29, 1993)
Charles A. Moose
Charles Moose
Charles Alexander Moose is an American law enforcement official and author. A native of New York City who grew up in North Carolina, he has served as the chief of police for Montgomery County, Maryland, and Portland, Oregon...

(June 29,1993 - August 1999)
Mark A. Kroeker (August 1999 - August 29, 2003)
Derrick Foxworth (August 29, 2003 - June 2006)
Rosie Sizer (June 22, 2006- May 12, 2010)
Michael Reese (May 12, 2010 - present)

External links

Portland Police Bureau 2007 Organizational Chart - PDF format

45.515204°N 122.676795°W

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