Letter: List of Law Enforcement Deadly Force Incidents in Oregon 2010-July 2014

October 17, 2014

To: Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum

1162 Court St NE

Salem, OR  97301

From: Portland Copwatch

Re: List of Law Enforcement Deadly Force Incidents in Oregon 2010-July

2014

Attorney General Rosenblum:

Enclosed is a database of the 101 deadly force incidents in Oregon (or involving Oregon law enforcement) from January 2010 to July 2014 as reported in our newsletter, the People's Police Report. We're sending them to you to be sure the list of such incidents that you are keeping in compliance with SB 111 -2007 (Section 6(7)) at least contains these data.

We are aware that there may be other incidents which we did not come across when researching our newsletter and thus this list may be incomplete. We hope that each county has been providing you with the name, gender, race, ethnicity and age of each civilian involved as well as the location, time, date and description of the incident as required by Section 6(6) of SB 111. We look forward to the Oregon DOJ's "periodic publication" of this information, as we have never seen it printed anywhere.

To summarize our findings:

* Totals:

---101 incidents

----92 shootings, 43 ending in death

----6 Taser-related deaths

----2 deaths in custody

----1 vehicle as deadly force

* Location of 100 incidents (excluding one in Washington state):

--The incidents occurred in 21 of Oregon's 36 counties --The incidents happened in 47 municipalities or unincorporated areas of counties in Oregon.

* Agencies involved:

--39 Oregon agencies were involved including incidents involving multiple agencies --Most frequently involved were Portland Police (22), Oregon State Police (11), Salem Police (8), Washington County Sheriffs (8), Hillsboro Police (6), Marion County Sheriffs (5) and Clackamas County Sheriffs (5).

* Broken down by year:

--2010:

--- 22 incidents

----20 shootings, 9 ending in death

-----6 in Portland

-----1 by US Marshals

-----1 with no hits

----2 Taser-related deaths

--2011:

--- 14 incidents

----13 shootings, 5 ending in death

-----4 in Portland plus one death in custody

-----1 by off duty Federal Protective Service officer

-----2 with no hits

----1 death in custody (in Portland, as noted above)

--2012:

--- 28 incidents

----25 shootings, 12 ending in death

-----6 in Portland

-----1 by US Marshals

-----2 with no hits

----3 Taser-related deaths

--2013:

--- 27 incidents

----26 shootings, 11 ending in death

-----2 in Portland

-----3 with no hits

----1 Taser-related death

--2014 (Jan-July):

--- 10 incidents

----8 shootings, 6 ending in death

-----3 in Portland

----1 death in custody

----1 deadly force using vehicle

* Race: We do not have enough information to break down the list by race statewide.

--5 of the 22 Portland shootings/deaths were of African Americans, or 23% of victims in a city that is 6% black.

* Gender: All but four of the 101 suspects were male.

* Age: The victims ranged in age from 17 to 88.

--Most common ages were 23 and 25 (6), 20 (5), 27/29/30/34/50 and 56 (4).

--Average age was 38.

* Veterans: We noted that at least five of the victims were primarily identified as military veterans in some kind of psychological crisis. (We suspect a large number of victims had mental health issues, but are unable to track that for all cases.)

As far as we know, only one of the shootings has resulted in an

indictment-- Officer Dane Reister in Portland shot an gravely wounded William Monroe with a "bean bag" shotgun loaded with live rounds.

We are aware that at least three other incidents occurred since the end of

July-- a shooting death at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution on Aug. 29, a woman shot and wounded by Springfield Police the same day (bringing the number of women shot to 5), and a shooting that wounded an African American suspect in Portland on Sept. 1 (taking Portland to 23 shootings in the 5 years, and 26 percent of those shot/shot at being black). For various reasons, we chose to publish our study at this time but may update the statistics in January.

We thank you for your attention to this matter.

Dan Handelman

Portland Copwatch

NOTES:

(A) Explanation of data other than shootings by Oregon law enforcement (or not in Oregon) resulting in injury or death:

---Shootings with no hits are included because the officer(s) intended to injure or kill the suspects, so the incidents should be tracked as deadly force anyway and investigated as attempted homicides.

---Incidents involving federal agencies within Oregon's borders should be of concern to the State.

---The incident near Lincoln City in 2014 in which an officer using a patrol car struck a suspect who was on foot should be counted as deadly force, especially since the suspect ended up in critical condition.

---An incident in Wishram, Washington involved deadly force by a plainclothes officer from The Dalles.

(B) Breakdown of incident data:

--By location (100 incidents in Oregon): 24 in Portland, 9 in Salem, 6 in Hillsboro, 5 in Aloha, 4 in/near Medford, 3 in Fairview, 3 in Gresham,  2 in Eagle Point, 2 in/near Silverton, 2 in/near The Dalles, 2 in Tigard, and 1 each in or around Beaverton, Bethany, Boring, Brownsville, Clackamas County, Cornelius, Elgin, Eugene, Gladstone, Happy Valley, Hermiston, Hubbard, Klamath Falls, Lakeview, Lincoln City, Madras, McMinville, Molalla, Mt. Angel, Myrtle Creek, North Albany, Oakridge, Ontario, Oregon City, Pendleton, Redmond, Roseburg, Scappoose, Sisters, Springfield, St.

Helens, Talent, Warren, Woodburn, Yachats and Yamhill County.

--By county: 30 in Multnomah, 16 in Washington, 13 in Marion, 7 in Clackamas, 7 in Jackson, 3 in Columbia, 3 in Lane, 2 in Deschutes, 2 in Douglas, 2 in Lincoln, 2 in Linn, 2 in Umatilla, 2 in Wasco, 2 in Yamhill, and 1 each in Benton, Clatsop, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, and Union.

--By agency: Portland Police (22-including 1 SERT), Oregon State Police (11-including 1 SWAT), Salem Police (8), Washington County Sheriffs (8-including 1 TNT), Hillsboro Police (6), Marion County Sheriffs (5), Clackamas County Sheriffs (5-including 2 SWAT), Fairview Police (3), Gresham Police (3), Jackson County Sheriffs (3), Medford Police (2), The Dalles Police (2), Forest Grove Police (2), and 1 each by Astoria Police, Beaverton Police, Benton County Sheriffs, Columbia County Sheriffs, Cornelius Police, Deschutes County Sheriffs, Douglas County Sheriffs, Eagle Point Police, Elgin Police, Eugene Police, Gladstone Police, Hermiston Police, Klamath Falls Police, Lebanon Police, Milwaukie Police, Mt. Angel Police, Myrtle Creek Police, Newberg-Dundee Police, Ontario Snake River Corrections Officers, Pendleton Police, Silverton Police, Springfield Police, St. Helens Police, Tigard Police, Woodburn Police, and Yamhill Police; also two shootings by US Marshals and one off duty Federal Protective Service officer.