Portland city councilors voted Wednesday to extend a contract with an independent group that reviews police shootings and in-custody deaths.
The vote comes days after the California-based OIR Group released its most recent review of police shootings, which included an analysis of the 2017 Quanice Hayes shooting.
The group's analysis was hailed by Hayes' grandmother, who testified about the city's plan to renew its contract with the independent experts.
"This report gave me a whole lot of information that I didn’t know — that no one took the time out to give me," Donna Hayes said. "I think they're of value to this city. And I think it's necessary to keep them."
The $200,000 contract extends the group’s work with the city through Jan. 31, 2020. It's also $60,000 more than the group's last contract with Portland.
While commissioners appeared to agree over the value of a third-party analysis of shootings by Portland Police, it remained unclear whose responsibility it is to implement the roughly 300 recommendations OIR has handed to the city over the years regarding police training and policies.
"I think it would be helpful for us as a council to have a checklist as OIR or any successor organizations come forward," Mayor Ted Wheeler said. "We have that ability to actually say: What was the response, and what was actually done, and who is to be accountable for that action?"
The Police Bureau has largely been in agreement with the recommendations from OIR. Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw told councilors the bureau could take the lead on tracking progress of implementation.
"We can turn that into an action plan and share that. We can come together and see if what we come up with is the best plan or if there are tweaks that need to be made," Outlaw told councilors.
Commissioner Chloe Eudaly described many of the recommendations as matters of culture change at the bureau. For example, the most recent findings indicate Portland police sergeants have a tendency of jumping into tactical positions during shooting incidents.
The experts made 40 recommendations to the city in its January 2019 report. They include videotaping interviews in police shooting investigations and engaging officers involved in more than one deadly force incident to see if patterns between events could be addressed with training.
Constantin Severe, director of the Independent Police Review, said reports from the OIR Group over the years have led to more timely administrative investigations into police shootings and the ability for IPR to review all police shootings and in-custody deaths. He also said the reports create opportunities for the public to leverage facts during reviews of police shootings and advocate for themselves.
"The recommendations by OIR have led to a significant amount of changes at the Portland Police Bureau," Severe said.
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