News In a TV interview Wednesday, New York Deputy Mayor Carl Howard Wolfson explained why and how the City of New York cleared the Occupy Wall Street protest out of Zucotti Park, and in doing so, contrasts New York’s strategy with the eviction of Occupy Portland over the weekend.---Wolfson told New York One he criticizes Portland’s 48-hour notice to protesters because, he says, it drew people looking ...   More

News The Portland Police Bureau has come under some heat this week after posting mugshots of Occupy Portland protesters arrested at Jamison Square on Sunday morning on its Facebook page. ---The Bureau posted its press release about the incident along with the mugshots of seven arrestees, sparking a torrent of criticism on Twitter and 458 comments on the page Facebook page itself. Portland Police Bureau's ...   More

News The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to comment to WW whether and how the shooting of an apparently mentally ill person by a central precinct police officer last week will affect a recently launched DOJ investigation of the Portland Police Bureau. Nevertheless, it's clear DOJ officials will be looking over the bureau's shoulder as it investigates the incident internally. On Thursday, Officer ...   More

News After a Friday afternoon press conference with Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese, plenty remains unclear about why a Central Precinct officer on Thursday shot a 20-year-old man with a gun that under police rules should never carry lethal ammunition. Police bureau managers suggested Officer Dane Reister violated several safeguards when he fired four live rounds from a bright-orange shotgun ...   More

News U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent one of his top deputies to Portland on Wednesday to announce a review of the Portland Police Bureau, aimed at determining whether police officers have exhibited a pattern of civil rights abuses. The review is a part of the Obama Justice Department's renewed pursuit of civil rights cases following years of neglect during the George W. Bush years—and ...   More

News The Portland Police Bureau is researching the acquisition of new weapons in its effort to tamp down the number of fatal officer-involved shootings in Portland, according to a budget proposal. And one of the tools the bureau wants to consider is the so-called TigerLight, a flashlight that contains a stealth pepper-spray canister that can "drop a 250 pound man to his knees," according to the maker of ...   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 ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams has picked a new director of public safety five months after taking the helm of the Portland Police Bureau. The new hire is Antoinette Edwards, formerly the diversity director for the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross. Adams hired Edwards this month, and mayoral spokesman Roy Kaufmann says Edwards' first day is today. Previously Adams interviewed Dorothy Elmore, a controversial ...   More

News After a confusion-filled Day 1 of the Portland Police Bureau's precinct consolidation on Tuesday, here's hoping Day 2 goes more smoothly. Cops at Central Precinct, East Precinct and North Precinct (formerly Northeast) describe a sometimes-disorderly move that initially left some officers with no patrol cars, nowhere to put their rifles and nowhere to park their own vehicles. "The first day ...   More