Think it’s easy?

Portlanders learn about life on the other side of the badge

By Jacob Quinn Sanders

The Portland Tribune, Nov 19, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

So this is what it’s like to fire a Glock 9 mm handgun. So this is what it’s like to get hit with 50,000 volts from a Taser.

So this is what it’s like to make life or death decisions on the fly Ñ and to know explicitly why.

So this is what it’s like to be a cop.

For the last eight weeks with one more to go, 16 Portlanders, five of them minorities, have volunteered for the Citizen Police Academy, which offers a taste of Portland Police Bureau training. They’re learning how to work the equipment, from patrol cars to the AR-15 assault rifle; what to consider when making decisions; how to assess a threat; and what the consequences are for any action.

They have watched films of officers dying.

Yet they are far from police officers: They get 30 hours of training in three-hour bursts compared to the 10-hour days police recruits put in when they attend two academies for a combined 26 weeks.

What they are Ñ whether a chiropractor, a community activist, a stay-at-home mom or a future cop Ñ is curious. Willing. Open.

“It’s a tradeoff,” said Mike Crebs, the Training Division captain who developed the academy. Crebs was promoted last week to commander of the Transit Division.

“They give us their time and their attention, and we get to be transparent. We get to invite them into the Police Bureau and send them back to their communities with, hopefully, a better understanding of what we do.”

Public concerns in Portland about police response to protesters and minorities, and controversies surrounding several police shootings Ñ including tactics in the death of Kendra James and the use of a Taser in the death of James Jahar Perez Ñ have only grown since the last academy four years ago.

Those issues brought many of the 16 here and increased the desire within the bureau to humanize the officers as they teach and guide the academy.

“Who likes football?” Sgt. Vince Elmore asked the academy at the start of his Week 5 class on the police bureau’s Rapid Response Team, which handles standoffs, protests and other situations. “Who likes apple pie? Who likes asparagus? I don’t like asparagus. But the point is that you and I probably have more in common than we don’t. So when you see this uniform, please get rid of the barrier.”

Marlene Howell, an activist with the Alliance for Police and Community Accountability, voiced optimism the first night, Sept. 30.

“I come in with a very open mind and a very open heart,” she said.

She took an active interest in tactics and seemed to approve of the Taser as a police tool.

“That seems good,” she said in Week 7. “That seems like a really positive option. I really didn’t like the baton.”

After each class, academy members fill out an evaluation, citing relevance, rating the instructor and recommending changes.

“Pretty positive so far,” Crebs said before the Taser class in Week 7. “Nothing too huge they want us to change or don’t understand.”

‘Reasonably necessary’

In 2000, budget cuts killed the original Citizen Police Academy, which began in 1990 and was offered about once a year. The Police Bureau has no training facility of its own. and the officers who lead courses on defense tactics or driving or firearms are on a combined $10,000 to $15,000 of overtime.

Some classes, such as Officer Cory Roberts’ firearms session, are hands-on. Others supply context. Deputy Multnomah County District Attorneys Wayne Pearson and Jim Hayden discussed the use of force, highlighting above all that an officer’s training includes no specific instance in which to use force.

“They all have to ask themselves, ‘Was it reasonably necessary?’ ” Hayden said. “Their training tells them how to make that judgment, not how to respond.”

For each pull of the trigger, each shot of pepper spray, each twist of a suspect’s arm, officers must be able to explain their decisions and the risks in making that decision.

In Week 2, officer Todd Engstrom taught the academy members how to use a police baton. A defense-tactics instructor, he also showed the academy how to use pressure points in a classroom at Camp Withycombe, a National Guard base in Clackamas where police also train.

“But the biggest tool I have is my mouth,” Engstrom said. “Your mouth can also be your biggest liability. We also teach that to officers.”

He explained the Police Bureau’s levels of control, the broad guidelines that suggest different tactics and weapons for different situations.

“So your job is is to respond to behavior, not to analyze why they have that behavior?” Howell asked Engstrom.

Engstrom nodded.

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