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In 2021, Officer Brian Hunzeker admitted to leaking a confidential report mistakenly tying the Portland Police Bureau’s most vociferous critic, then-City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, to a hit-and-run accident. After public outcry, Mayor Ted Wheeler fired Hunzeker—over the objections of his own disciplinary committee and chief of police.
Now, two years later, Hunzeker has been reinstated by a Washington state-based arbitrator.
The mayor saved face by appearing tough. The cop kept his job. With memories of the scandal fading, the news cycle moved on. If we sound a little cynical, that’s because what happened last week followed a well-trodden path, a pattern that starts to feel like an eternal recurrence of Portland police discipline.
WW reviewed a list of arbitration decisions published by the state’s Employment Relations Board. The list is incomplete—until recently, arbitrators were not required to submit their decisions to the state.
But a review of even this limited set of decisions illustrates the cycle’s persistence. Out of the 10 cases in the past two decades involving Portland police misconduct, arbitrators ruled in cops’ favor in eight of them.
The Portland Police Association is one of the most powerful unions in the state, and has been for decades. A WW cover story in 2020 traced the long history of the union’s influence, and the hard-charging contract negotiations that underpin it (“The Blue Wall,” WW, June 24, 2020).
“I think every firing of an officer was overturned when I was in office,” former City Commissioner Mike Lindberg, who served from 1979 to 1996, told WW at the time.
Although police forces often have powerful unions, Portland is in some respects an outlier. Nationwide studies have shown that arbitrators typically run in officers’ favor only around 50% to 60% of the time.
Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of Portland’s union for rank-and-file police officers, credits his organization’s judiciousness for its remarkable record. “The reason that the PPA is historically successful is because we don’t just grieve everything,” he says. “We only complain when we think that it’s unfair.”
The PPA has taken the city to arbitration in only 2% of disciplinary cases, according to recent statistics he shared with WW.
But those cases are often the most politically inflammatory, and the fact that appointed arbitrators so consistently overrule elected city leaders has long inflamed critics.
Such frustration led state legislators to reform the law enforcement arbitration process in 2021. Those reforms limited arbitrators’ power. They could only overturn discipline that was “arbitrary or capricious”—or for allegations that were false.
The latter is how Timothy Williams, a randomly appointed arbitrator with nearly five decades of experience, overturned Hunzeker’s firing. He concluded there was not “a preponderance of evidence” that Hunzeker was guilty of all the charges the city levied against him.
In March 2021, Oregonian reporter Maxine Bernstein called Hunzeker trying to confirm a tip that someone inside the Police Bureau was concocting a hit-and-run accusation against then-Commissioner Hardesty, a prominent critic. Hunzeker responded by texting Bernstein a copy of a police report listing Hardesty as the suspect in a hit-and-run accident in East Portland. (The crash victim had mistakenly identified Hardesty.) The Oregonian ran the story.
After Hunzeker admitted that Hardesty’s ongoing criticism of the city’s police force played into his decision to leak the document, the city added retaliation to the list of charges. Mayor Wheeler ultimately fired him.
But Williams disagreed. Given Hunzeker’s position as head of the police union, Williams wrote, his motivation was “public discourse,” not retaliation. In other words, because Hunzeker had a political job, he was entitled to engage in political speech.
This conclusion outrages Dan Handelman, head of Portland Copwatch, who noted that Hunzeker was acting as a police officer—not a union official—when he accessed the confidential file. “Ignoring that is a fundamental slap in the face to the community, to Jo Ann Hardesty, and to justice,” Handelman says.
If so, it’s only the latest. Here are the eight rulings on Portland police misconduct, including Hunzeker’s, that have been published by the state ERB. (In the other two, the union lost on technicalities—it failed to meet submission deadlines.)
Officer: Brian Hunzeker, former president of the PPA
What happened: Hunzeker leaked a confidential police report incorrectly accusing Jo Ann Hardesty, a prominent critic, of a hit-and-run.
Union: Portland Police Association
Charges: Leaking, retaliation
Original discipline: Fired
Arbitrator: Timothy Williams
Ruling: One-week suspension
Date: Jan. 31, 2023
Rationale: Williams found Hunzeker guilty of leaking, but not retaliation. Williams was also unconvinced that the resulting Oregonian story did much harm to Hardesty, and concluded that a one-week suspension—more than the one-day suspension given to another officer accused of leaking the report, but less than the 12 weeks preferred by the chief of police—was the appropriate discipline.
Officer: Andrew Caspar
What happened: Caspar arrived late to a welfare check, telling bystanders, “We don’t chase known suspects thanks to the Obama administration.”
Union: Portland Police Association
Charges: Laziness, lying
Original discipline: Fired
Arbitrator: Michael Cavanaugh
Ruling: Written reprimand
Date: June 7, 2021
Rationale: Cavanaugh says he was “perhaps more sympathetic than the city” to Caspar’s explanations for his delay in responding to a mental health welfare check. Caspar blamed “heavy rush-hour traffic,” despite GPS tracking data that suggested he was hanging out with a trainee inside a Starbucks. In the end, Cavanaugh was unconvinced Caspar’s evasions amounted to lies.
Officer: Lt. Rachel Andrew
What happened: Andrew filed a report claiming another officer “yelled” at her over the phone. She was also accused of being overly touchy-feely with co-workers.
Union: Portland Police Commanding Officers Association
Charges: Sexual harassment, lying
Original discipline: 80-hour suspension
Arbitrator: Judy Henry
Ruling: 40-hour suspension
Date: Sept. 14, 2014
Rationale: Henry concluded that Andrew’s statement in her report was “untenable” and she had made “inappropriate comments.” The arbitrator was unconvinced, however, that Andrew’s sexual comments were unwelcome.
Officer: Scott Dunick
What happened: Dunick smoked pot, gave prescription drugs to a co-worker, and was arrested for DUII.
Union: Portland Police Association
Charge: Ongoing substance abuse problems
Original discipline: Fired
Arbitrator: Stanley Michelstetter
Ruling: Reinstated, with mandatory drug testing
Date: Dec. 12, 2012
Rationale: Michelstetter accused the police chief at the time, Mike Reese, of making “a number of crucial errors” during the disciplinary process, including failing to evaluate Dunick for disability retirement as the result of mental illness.
Officers: Christopher Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice
What happened: Officers beat to death 42-year-old James P. Chasse Jr., who was unarmed and suffering from mental illness.
Charge: Failing to ensure Chasse received proper medical care after he was tasered
Union: Portland Police Association
Original discipline: 80-hour suspensions
Arbitrator: Timothy Williams
Ruling: Cleared of wrongdoing
Date: July 9, 2012
Rationale: Williams noted that paramedics examined Chasse at the scene, and the decision not to later send for an ambulance was OK’d by an on-call nurse—it was not a “mandatory requirement,” according to bureau policy.
Officer: Ronald Frashour
What happened: Frashour fatally shot 25-year-old Aaron Campbell in the back with an AR-15 rifle.
Union: Portland Police Association
Charge: Excessive force
Original discipline: Fired
Arbitrator: Jane R. Wilkinson
Ruling: Reinstated
Date: March 30, 2012
Rationale: Wilkinson concluded “it was reasonable” for Frashour to believe Campbell was armed, and reaching toward his waistband, when he shot him. “This was a very tragic case,” she wrote, “one where the Monday-morning quarterback has the clear advantage when divining what went wrong.”
Officer: Lt. Jeffrey Kaer
What happened: Kaer shot and killed 28-year-old Dennis Lamar Young, whom Kaer found parked outside Young’s sister’s home in what Kaer suspected was a stolen car. Young backed the car toward officers while attempting to flee.
Union: Portland Police Commanding Officers Association
Charge: Poor judgment
Original discipline: Fired
Arbitrator: Gary Axon
Ruling: 30-day suspension
Date: July 28, 2008
Rationale: Axon sided with Kaer’s commanders, who believed the hasty decision to shoot deserved a suspension, not termination.
Officer: Scott McCollister
What happened: McCollister shot and killed Kendra James, a 21-year-old Black woman, as he attempted to drag her from a car. There was a warrant for James’ arrest, and she was fleeing from a traffic stop.
Charge: Poor tactics
Union: Portland Police Association
Original discipline: 5.5-month suspension
Arbitrator: John C. Truesdale
Ruling: Cleared of wrongdoing
Date: Jan. 17, 2006
Rationale: Truesdale cited a “disconnect” between the police chief’s “decision-making process” and the “true facts of the situation.” Kendra James was a dangerous flight risk, Truesdale concluded, and the city, “swept up in a maelstrom of swirling public opinion,” rushed to discipline McCollister prior to completing its investigation.
Clarification: Two of the 10 cases examined here were grieved by the Portland Police Commanding Officers Association, which represents represents PPB managers.