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Portland Police Make Their Case For Having Officers On Campus

by Blair Stenvick

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DOMINIC DEVENUTA

The future of the Portland Police Bureau’s (PPB) presence at local public schools is uncertain. But, with the decision currently in the hands of the Portland City Council, PPB leadership is making its best pitch for why their officers belong on campus.

On Tuesday, representatives from PPB and Portland’s three public school districts spoke at a Portland City Council work session meant to provide information about school resource officers (SROs). SROs are sworn police officers who maintain a regular presence on campus, so that when a cop is needed at school—for instance, to break up a fight or help a student who is experiencing abuse at home—the officer already understands how the school works and, ideally, has the trust of students and faculty.

PPB Deputy Chief Chris Davis characterized SROs as “mentors, informal counselors, [and] trusted adults” on campus who “work outside of the criminal justice system whenever possible” to help students overcome challenges at home or on campus, and to provide treatment options to students struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues.

PPB has provided school resources officers for high schools at Portland Public Schools (PPS), as well as the two smaller school districts in East Portland (David Douglas and Parkrose), for decades. However, there’s never been a formal contract between the school districts and the city—and the cost has always been absorbed by PPB, rather than passed on to PPS. In late 2018, city leaders tried to change that by asking PPS’ board of directors to sign an agreement formalizing the setup, and agreeing to pay over $1 million a year for the SROs.

That move saw intense backlash from district students, families, and faculty. Some opposed the new contract on the grounds that they didn’t want police to have a regular presence on campus, while others objected to the cost suddenly being passed on to the district. The PPS board declined to approve the agreement.

During the last city budget cycle in May of 2019, the Portland City Council approved funding for the program for the 2019-20 school year. But not all city commissioners were happy with the decision, and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty questioned whether PPS should use SROs at all. That means the topic could become a hot-button issue when budget conversations are taken up again later this year.

Nationally, SROs have developed a poor reputation over the last few years for disproportionately targeting students of color. Several viral videos have shown extreme uses of force against young students, and an SRO was blamed for not doing more to respond to a devastating 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. PPB’s Davis made a point of mentioning those national headlines at Tuesday’s work session, and to define PPB’s program as “intentionally different” from most SRO units.

PPB’s SROs receive 350 hours of additional training, Davis said, and comprise the “most diverse” PPB unit in terms of age, race, and sexual orientation. Last school year, Portland SROs were called to respond to incidents on campus over 5,000 times, and only 20 of those instances resulted in arrest. That’s because the officers are taught how to de-escalate tense situations with students, and how to redirect a potential criminal charge into a social services case, Davis said.

Madison High School Principal Adam Skyles said that he appreciated having SROs because his students “feel comfortable talking to a person they see on campus every day.” That loss would be felt if the SRO unit didn’t exist, he said—especially during emergency situations.

“I have concerns around what will happen to our students when we don’t know who we’ll be calling, who will be show up,” Skyles said.

At the same time, Skyles acknowledged that “my experience with policing and officers looks different than the community I represent.” Last year, when the PPS board was considering the new agreement, many PPS students of color told the Mercury that they didn’t feel comfortable having armed police officers on campus, no matter how much extra training they’d received.

“I’ve always felt that simply being around a police officer was threatening to me because I see police officers as unpredictable, and it scares me,” said Micah Mizushima, a student at Grant High School.

At Tuesday’s work session, Hardesty brought up the trepidation people of color can sometimes feel toward police officers, and asked why SROs were necessary when many of their functions could instead be performed by school counselors.

“I’m just trying to understand the value that’s added by having a police officer with a weapon in the school,” Hardesty said.

Lt. Jim Quackenbush, who oversees PPB’s SRO program, answered that police officers can help fill in “holes in information” that school faculty might not otherwise have access to. For example, if there were a sudden behavioral problem with a student, police would know if that student’s parents had recently been involved in a domestic violence incident.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly called PPB’s SRO program “exemplary,” but also expressed skepticism as to whether police were the best option for dealing with issues that might be better handled by social workers or counselors.

“I want to be sure we’re not being offered a false choice,” Eudaly said. “Are we over-relying on police?”

That question—and the question of who should be paying for SROs—will likely be taken up again by both the city and PPS later this year.

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