Blogtown, PDX: Meet the Contenders - Question #6

The Portland Mercury's Blogtown, PDX site has been producing a weekly series of questions for the various candidates running in the Portland mayor and city council races. This series is a great way to meet the candidates and learn about the issues affecting the public and Portland city government. We're reproducing (with permission) Chris's responses here, while also providing links to the original Blogtown posts.

Question #6:

(Original Post from Jan. 24, 2008)

On Wednesday night, January 16, Police Chief Rosie Sizer presented a report on the Racial Profiling Task Force, a group charged with working toward the elimination of racial profiling. Has Portland seen progress in this area? What can be done to further improve police-community relations?

Chris's Response:

Recently I’ve watched as another “minority” community – cyclists, felt that they were very much disrespected by the Police after the deaths of two cyclists and the serious injury of another in right-turning crashes. Cyclists felt like whatever the law, the Police didn’t actually expect drivers to yield to cyclists. I’ve been encouraged by the response of the Bureau – negotiation of a new Community Policing Agreement, changes in the policy on how the bureau speaks to the press about bike crashes, and some personnel reassignments.

Of course racial profiling is in a completely different league, and I don’t mean to in any way equate these issues. But I think the key idea is the same – respect - and a need to examine the often unconscious biases that we may hold, and to talk through the issues.

I think Mayor Potter hit the nail on the head in his State of the City address:

It is an uncomfortable topic for many, but I believe race will remain an ugly, open sore on the body politic until we start talking honestly with each other...and listening.

We need to keep asking for, indeed demanding, better from the Police Bureau. But I think we all own a piece of this problem. This is part of a larger set of issues including disparity in educational outcomes and disparity in economic opportunity. We must face up to, talk about and listen to these issues as a community – with respect.