A new report says the Portland Police Bureau is obscuring information on officers who use excessive force on the job. Researchers with the organization Ctrl+Alt+Defund investigated use of force data between 2017 and 2023 through public records requests and found only a few officers account for many of these incidences. The highest rate was from Officer Damien Dale, who used force 23 times in 2023. The average for officers that year was 2.7.
Sarah Hamid, lead Portland organizer with Freedom to Thrive, said her group supported the research.
“What this report was able to validate was that not only is this violence happening, but this violence is happening in a concentrated way from certain officers who are known to police leadership,” she explained.
Under an Oregon law passed in 2021, Portland Police are required to provide the name of officers upon request. The bureau keeps a use of force dashboard, but officers are identified with a randomly generated number rather than their badge number. In an email responding to the report, Sergeant Kevin Allen said the use of force occurs in a small number of cases – less than half of 1% of all calls – and that disparities occur because some officers work in busier areas than others.
Hamid said despite the dashboard the Portland Police Bureau provides, a lot of work was required to identify officers who use force excessively.
“This should be something that’s publicly accessible and constantly accessible because this is the kind of transparency that allows individuals who have been victimized by these officers to seek retribution and justice,” Hamid explained.
Hamid added rather than investing in training for officers who use force, the city should listen to the people who have been victimized by these officers.
“Do what those communities have been asking for, which is start funding public resources and services so that people’s living conditions can improve,” Hamid continued. “That needs to be where all of the money from the city’s coffers is going right now – not towards more violent policing.”
