News Portland Police Chief Mike Reese just announced that Officer Ronald Frashour has been fired for the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Aaron Campbell last January. As first reported in WW, the police bureau's Use of Force Review Board recommended firing Frashour last August for shooting Campbell with an assault rifle while Campbell was unarmed and fleeing police. Reese said he and Mayor Sam Adams ...   More

News As reported in this week's Murmurs, the sister of a man shot to death by a Portland cop in 2005 is now asking Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese not to promote the officer involved in the shooting. Officer Leo Besner tops the Police Bureau's list of officers to promote to sergeant. But Bobbie Jo Foster of Sammamish, Wash., argues in her Nov. 30 letter (PDF) that Besner has a history ...   More

News After a last-minute intervention in Portland Mayor Sam Adams' office by a friend of a man fatally shot in 2005 by Portland Police Officer Leo Besner, it appears Besner will be promoted today to sergeant. (Update 1:23 pm: Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson confirms Besner was promoted in a ceremony this morning.) Besner is atop the Police Bureau's list of candidates for sergeant. The city ...   More

News Got unwanted firearms laying around? You can turn them in this Saturday, Dec. 18 at the annual Gun Turn-In event sponsored by Ceasefire Oregon and the City of Portland. Operable or inoperable guns will be accepted with no questions asked from 10 am to 2 pm at Memorial Coliseum's North Benton Parking Lot. Working guns can be exchanged for a $50 Fred Meyer gift card (limit of three). Non-working ...   More

Rogue of the Week     More

News Portland Police Officer Tom Brennan today says he plans to file a $270,000 federal lawsuit against the city for banishing him to the property room after he complained about the behavior of a sergeant involved in the death of James Chasse Jr. As first reported in The Oregonian, Brennan was working night shift at Central Precinct last year when he says Sgt. Kyle Nice escalated a contact with two ...   More

News Cops say Mike Reese has wasted no time as Portland's new top cop before purging the chief's office of several high-profile figures. Three sources close to the police bureau tell WW that Leslie Stevens and John Eckhart have been told they'll no longer be employed on the 15th floor of the Justice Center. Two of those sources say Brian Martinek also is out. Stevens is head of the bureau's Office ...   More

News Mayor (and newly minted Police Commissioner) Sam Adams joined today with his new police chief, Mike Reese to discuss last night's fatal police shooting in a press conference that took place less than 24 hours after Adams had introduced Reese yesterday as the new chief. There are still many unknowns in that shooting — the third fatal police shooting in 2010. According to the cops, at ...   More

News Before nightfall of his first day as Portland's new self-appointed police commissioner, Mayor Sam Adams got his first challenge in the form of a fatal police shooting — the third in less than five months this year. Many details about this shooting will emerge in the coming days as they did with the deaths of Aaron Campbell and Jackie Collins. New police chief Mike Reese —appointed ...   More

News When Mayor Sam Adams and new Police Chief Mike Reese rolled out their revised police budget last month, they said it was all about preserving public safety in Portland by keeping cops on the streets. "This budget is about protecting the operational integrity of the Portland Police Bureau," Reese was quoted as saying in a news release. "Units like Mounted Patrol and Cold Case are what Portlanders ...   More