The City Can't Fire Its Own Cops

Portland Mercury:

Lawyer Tom Steensen and the step-father of Aaron Campbell (left) at a city hall rally protesting the forced re-hiring of Officer Ron Frashour this morning.Who's in charge of deciding whether police officers can be fired? In Portland, not the police commissioner. Here it's the state employment bureaucrats—the Oregon Employment Relations Board issued a ruling last week that forces the city to rehire Officer Ron Frashour, who Mayor Sam Adams fired two years ago after he fatally shot Portlander Aaron Campbell in the back. The perfunctory decision ironically comes just a week after a major federal investigation found that Portland police lack oversight and accountability when using force and have a pattern of using excessive force against people with mental illnesses (like Aaron Campbell). The Portland Police Association successfully argued that Frashour's shooting of Campbell was within police policy. "I will never believe that police are trained to shoot someone in the back," said Campbell's mother, Marva Davis, in a statement read aloud at a police oversight rally this morning at city hall. "The community doesn't need people like you, you are a liability." The rally raised the issue: If the mayor can't fire Officer Frashour, who can he fire? Police oversight activists worry that the strength of the police union will lead to less accountability for officers who the city tries to punish. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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