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During 2020, in response to disproportionate and egregious police misconduct and violence towards Black and brown people in the United States, millions of people across our country and the world protested for racial justice and police accountability. In fall of 2020, the voters of Portland took this movement for greater justice to the ballot box, and 82% of them voted “yes” to a ballot measure that created the Community Board for Police Accountability.
This ballot measure incorporated best practices for independence, authority, and resources in a police accountability board – with the goal of making the board effective in preventing and addressing police misconduct and violence in the City of Portland.
The creation of this accountability board reflected a long term movement for racial justice and civil rights in Portland led by Black leaders, including elders like the Reverend Dr. LeRoy Haynes, Jr., the chair of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, and elected leaders like Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who was on the City of Portland Council from 2019 to 2022.
Only a couple years later, however, police interest groups went on the offensive. In spring of 2024, William Aitchison, a lawyer for the Portland Police Association (PPA) – which is formal name for the Portland police union – initiated a ballot measure to roll back the independence, authority, and resources of the Community Board for Police Accountability. The Portland police union is one of Oregon’s most powerful interest groups, and it has continuously and aggressively attempted to undermine commonsense accountability measures for Portland police officers.
The ACLU of Oregon responded to the Portland police union’s rollback efforts by challenging it in Oregon state court. Our challenge was filed on behalf of the Rev. Dr. Haynes, Jr.
Our legal challenge asked the court to revise the ballot title of the police union’s petition – to ensure that the title accurately informed voters that it, if adopted by voters, would gut the independent oversight and disciplinary powers of the Community Board for Police Accountability. The court made revisions to the ballot title consistent with our request.
After we successfully intervened via the court system, the Portland police union did not meet the next steps that were required for them to get their rollback petition on the November 2024 ballot.
This win by the ACLU of Oregon and Rev. Dr. Haynes, Jr. protected the Community Board for Police Accountability, and it was a victory for freedom and equality – bending the arc of history towards greater justice.
Learn more about the case here.
