NCJ Number
82589
Journal
Police Magazine Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Dated: (May 1982) Pages: 26-31
Date Published
1982
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This account of a police scandal in Portland, Oreg., in 1981 tells about a narcotics unit's falsification of evidence and other illegal activities which resulted in demands to create a civilian review board.
Abstract
The officers, who were on the night shift of the Portland Police Bureau's Special Investigation Division, had also invented informants or informants' stories to obtain search warrants in 1979 and 1980. Some had skimmed drugs, sold drugs, or given drugs away. Others had stolen money, jewelry, clothing, and other personal property from suspects. The officers had defrauded the city of thousands of dollars in evidence funds. Four had planted drug evidence in order to make arrests. A total of 75 cases brought by the officers were found to be legally tainted. In 58 cases, convictions were overturned; in 17 cases, the charges were dismissed before the cases went to trial. Among results of the scandal were the removal of the elected official in charge of the police bureau, 20 civil lawsuits seeking $50 million in damages against the police and city as a result of the revelations, and demands from such organizations as the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the National Conference on Christians and Jews for the creation of a civilian review board. Officers who were close to those involved in the scandal believe that the events resulted from the pressures to break the city's narcotics trade and the frustrations of realizing that convicted drug dealers were serving little or no prison time due to a Federal court order to reduce overcrowding in Oregon prisons. Several specific cases, including a raid which was conducted under an illegally obtained search warrant and in which a narcotics officer was killed, are described. The Police Bureau's activities to improve control and supervision over narcotics officers and to restore community trust in the department are also described. No references are cited.