City Hall Notebook: Saltzman Meets With African-American Police Recruits

Following up on his pledge from last week to reach out to African-American candidates for jobs with the Portland Police Bureau, Commissioner Dan Saltzman met with several recruits in his office this morning. Last Friday, Saltzman said some potential police officers had turned down jobs with the bureau in response to the fatal shooting of Aaron Campbell on Jan. 29.

I'll update this post with Saltzman's response on the outcome of that meeting later.

Saltzman's effort is a response to the fact the Portland Police Bureau's percentage of minority cops is small compared to Portland's overall minority population.

UPDATE: Saltzman met with three recruits this morning in his office. He said none of them had been offered jobs yet. Instead, they had decided not to continue the application process because of the shooting last month. Saltzman said he'd help them with the process if they changed their minds and offered to meet with friends of the recruits who had similar reservations.