Portland Police Chief Mike Reese Will Retire in January

Portland Police Chief Mike Reese is retiring in January, WW has learned, and Mayor Charlie Hales has selected Assistant Chief Larry O'Dea to as the next chief of the Portland Police Bureau. 

Hales' office confirmed Reese's retirement to WW this morning. The mayor will announce O'Dea's appointment as chief at a noon press conference in the Justice Center.

"I thank Mike Reese for his leadership and his service," Hales says in a statement. "Mike saw us through the investigation and settlement with the DOJ. This was a key milestone for our city and the community's relationship with the bureau."

Sources near City Hall tell WW that Reese's retirement was voluntary, a decision he reached partly because he now qualifies for maximum retirement benefits.

Mayor Sam Adams named Reese chief in May 2010. He joined the Portland Police Bureau on July 1, 1994 after five years in the Multnomah County Sheriff's office.

Those five years in the sheriff's office count toward Reese's police bureau retirement. That means Reese reached his maximum retirement benefit this past July. 

Reese has steered the bureau through tumultuous times.

His officers engaged in a lengthy, largely peaceful stand-off with the Occupy Portland protesters who took over Chapman and Lownsdale squares in 2011. The positive response to the bureau's handling of the volatile situation briefly led Reese to consider running for mayor that fall.

But Reese's mayoral ambitions crumbled when he told KGW-TV that Occupy Portland delayed police response to a rape for three hours. That wasn't true. As the Police Bureau walked back Reese's claim, an Oregonian photo of an officer pepper-spraying a demonstrator in the face went viral.

Reese then announced he wouldn't run for mayor.

Also in 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights investigation into whether the police bureau was using excessive force when interacting with mentally ill citizens. The probe resulted in the DOJ finding that the bureau had engaged in a "practice and pattern of excessive force" against the mentally ill.

Negotiations resulted in a settlement signed in August. 

Under Reese's leadership the bureau's use of force has declined steadily and he recently celebrated the completion of a longstanding priority, a police training facility, located in North Portland. 

The selection of O'Dea as Reese's successor indicates Hales is doubling down on a return to community policing, which gets officers out of their cars and in more direct contact with citizens. Such walking patrols have been widely praised on Hawthorne Boulevard, and Hales has pledged to expand the programs.

O'Dea has been a public face for those changes, telling The Oregonian in February that building relationships to prevent crime has surpassed making arrests as a bureau priority.

He repeated those priorities today.

"I am so excited about the direction we're moving," O'Dea said in a statement. "You can see it in the command staff and in the rank-and-file. It's about relationships with the community. It's not about the number of arrests; it's about working on the things that are important to the community."

UPDATE, 1:45 pm: Hales announced O'Dea's promotion at a packed press conference in the Justice Center, telling media and police he chose Reese's successor because O'Dea will increase community policing and diversify the bureau.

"I've taken the measure of the man for some time," Hales told WW after the noon press conference. "His priorities match mine. You notice what he mentioned first: diversity and community policing."

Hales tells WW that Reese first reached out to him in July about retiring. Reese and Hales agreed that the signing of the DOJ agreement and the completion of the North Portland training center offered the right moment for a change.

The mayor contrasted the two-month preparation for Reese's announcement with the hurried terminations of former chiefs Derek Foxworth and Rosie Sizer.

"The usual format has been, 'Off with his head, out the door, who's next?'" Hales said. "That's not a good way to run an airline."

Reese didn't stick around for questions after his statement, where he told his bureau "there has been no greater honor than to be your chief." He says he's planning to spend more time sailing, running triathlons and coaching youth basketball.

O'Dea, taking questions from a press scrum after the announcement, said he'll focus on implementing DOJ reforms and making sure the Police Bureau spends more time building relationships than making arrests.

"What I want of my officers is that they are engaged in the city," O'Dea said. "Are you connected with your folks?"

The incoming chief was born in Niagara Falls and lives outside Oregon City. He says needs the police force needs to improve its relationships with all minority communities in Portland. 

"We need to do a better job," O'Dea said. "You see it in events like Ferguson. That was about more than that night. That was about a segment of the community not having a strong relationship with their police bureau."

WWeek 2015