News The Portland Police Bureau is pushing forward with mental health reforms mandated by the U.S. Deportment of Justice—but one officer picked to work with the mentally ill is drawing criticism from advocates, The Skanner reports today.In a story about the reforms—which are being negotiated between the federal government, the city and the police union this month—the paper says that Chief Mike Reese ...   More

News Mayor Charlie Hales will attend Friday's premiere of Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse, the scathing documentary about the police killing of James Chasse in 2006, his office has confirmed. The movie, WW reviewer AP Kryza says, "plays out like a horror film and leaves you absolutely breathless."The filmmakers—director Brian Lindstrom and screenwriter Matt Davis, a former Portland Mercury ...   More

Movie Reviews & Stories Infuriating, tragic, heartbreaking and incendiary in equal measures, Portland filmmaker Brian Lindstrom’s Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse is a documentary that plays out like a horro   More

News A local photographer's picture of local cops and Portland kids is going viral on a day when the Portland Police are in the news for a completely different reason.This photo—depicting Portland Police Officer Doug Matthews allowing four teenagers to sit and chat on the hood of his cop car at Last Thursdays on Alberta—has received more than 2,000 likes, 600 shares and approximately 164 comments in ...   More

News Sgt. Scott Westerman, the Portland police union president, is taking another swipe at Chief Rosie Sizer for delaying her decision on whether to discipline the officers involved in the 2006 death of James Chasse Jr. Using strong words in the upcoming issue of The Rap Sheet, Westerman writes in the union newspaper that one of those officers, Christopher Humphreys, has been "publicly ignored and ...   More

News The controversy over the death of James Chasse Jr. is ramping up, with City Hall announcing an independent probe of the police investigation and the police union bringing in a PR firm to clear up its image. City Auditor Lavonne Griffin-Valade announced today she'll hire an outside expert to evaluate how the police bureau handled its internal investigation of Chasse's 2006 death in police custody. The ...   More

News The Mental Health Association of Portland tomorrow will take its pleas regarding the death of James Chasse Jr. directly to the City Council. Jason Renaud, head of the nonprofit advocacy group, says there's a perception that the police have enjoyed impunity since Chasse, who suffered from schizophrenia, died in police custody in 2006. "The message delivered is a brutal beating and death of ...   More

News More than three years after the death of James Chasse Jr., Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer today released the findings of an investigation into the death. The Police Use of Review Force Board in its findings concluded that the "initiation and termination of the foot pursuit of Mr. Chasse did not violate any Bureau policy and that the force used during the struggle to stop, control and handcuff ...   More

News Four organizations that deal with mental-health issues in Oregon are joining together to call for the resigations of the officers who arrested James Chasse Jr. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America of Oregon, Disability Rights Oregon and the Mental Health Association of Portland are asking elected officials and community members to join in calling for the voluntary resignations ...   More

News The Rev. LeRoy Haynes joined mental-health advocates today in calling on the police who arrested James Chasse Jr. to resign. Haynes, representing the Albina Ministerial Alliance of North and Northeast Portland, likened Chasse's 2006 death in police custody to the earlier police shootings of Kendra James, James Jahar Perez and Jose Santos Victor Mejia Poot. Quoting Martin Luther King Jr. that ...   More