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State Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Clackamas) says the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office should review the testimony of Portland Police Detective Erik Kammerer to any grand jury that decided whether or not to indict a Portland police officer.
WW reported last month that Kammerer has played a key role for at least a decade in grand jury proceedings to determine whether other police officers were justified in using deadly force. He is now himself under investigation for allegations he used excessive force while leading a police squad responding to protests.
Bynum says that juxtaposition raises questions about the reliability of Kammerer's testimony in grand jury proceedings following police shootings.
"A blanket statement about a person who may or may not have been truthful is dangerous," Bynum tells WW. "But ultimately I think each case would deserve a review at a minimum. It is vitally important for us to protect due process and for us to demand the highest character of people that we allow to wear the badge."
Videos and witness accounts identify Kammerer as the officer wearing a helmet marked 67 at Portland protests. That officer is accused of shoving several protesters, and striking a Black homeowner in the head who complained about tear gas seeping into his Southeast Portland home.
Kammerer has been removed from street duty, but remains an active homicide detective, including taking a lead role in investigating the December shooting of a Portland man by U.S. deputy marshals. (He has repeatedly declined WW's requests for comment, as has the Portland Police Bureau.)
In short, while being investigated for use of force, he still holds the authority to conduct investigations that result in him testifying about whether other officers' use of deadly force was justified.
Bynum and state Sen. Lew Frederick (D-Portland), who are among the state's top Black elected officials and leading voices for police reform, say Kammerer's double role in public safety is unacceptable.
The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office could not be immediately reached for comment.
Frederick says no police officer should be giving grand juries expert testimony on whether another officer's actions were justified.
"Folks who are doing any investigation like that should not be directly involved in either the police or the DA's office of that particular county. I've been calling for that for some time," Frederick tells WW.
"They've shown over and over again to be so compromised in their concept of what use of force is about that they rarely come to any sort of conclusion that is in any way contrary to what their police culture says should take place," Frederick continued. "I think if you were to look at the investigation for a whole series of cases over the years, there would be conflict of interest on a regular basis."
Bynum agrees that structural changes to the grand jury process are required.
"It's just wrong. It doesn't produce justice. That's not an acceptable outcome. I can't even find the words for it," Bynum says. "If you want to make sure that's an isolated incident, you fix the systems and you go deeper than the moral outrage."
Bynum previously told WW that she asked Portland city officials to tell her whether officers who worked with Kammerer at protests had followed a new requirement passed by the Legislature last year to report misconduct by their colleagues. She received no reply.
Frederick pledges to introduce further reforms. He says he's working on 12 bill concepts surrounding public safety and officer discipline.
"We need to have something done about folks who are serial abusers in one form or another," Frederick says. "They abuse their authority and they get away with it because we have a culture in many cases that is based around the idea that it's OK for police officers to be as aggressive as possible."
