Police Accountability and Oversight Board Threatened by Proposed Initiative
The League of Women Voters of Portland and Portland Forward, with the assistance of ACLU Oregon, filed an amici curiae brief with the Multnomah County Circuit Court on April 24, 2024. The brief supported the ballot title challenge which the Dr. Rev. LeRoy Haynes, Jr. filed to a Portland Police Association initiative petition (PDX24OL-03). Dr. Rev. Haynes chairs the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform.
The initiative sought to eliminate the police oversight board’s ability to discipline officers and reduced the board’s scope of jurisdiction over police misconduct cases. This authority was given to the yet-to-be-implemented board when voters passed Measure 26-217 in 2020. The court filings from the Dr. Rev. Haynes, the League, and Portland Forward made the point that the ballot title was not an accurate summary of the impact the measure would have if passed. Circuit Court Judge Katharine von Ter Stegge ruled against the Police Association’s petition and incorporated part of the language requested by Rev. Haynes in her revision of the proposed ballot title.
Read the ACLU press release about this here.
Read the court order and revised ballot title here.
The League has a long history of involvement with police oversight in Portland, endorsed Measure 26-217, and we base our action on the Portland Police Bureau: Oversight and Accountability position.