Dozens resign from Portland Police Bureau's Rapid Response Team

(JUNE 22, 2021) Dozens of police officers in Portland voted last week to resign from their place on the Rapid Response Team.

The Rapid Response Team has received advanced specialized training to respond to incidents requiring higher levels of technical expertise. This includes maintaining public order and assisting with natural or man-made disasters. The primary role has been to provide public safety at crowd events when there was a threat of harm to the community. All Rapid Response Team members are trained in advanced skills related to crowd management and crowd control. This includes crowd psychology and behavior, team formations and movements, the use of enhanced personal protective equipment, use of force, de-escalation and arrests.

The 50 or so police officers will remain police officers, but they will no longer work on this special team. The team is a voluntary assignment. The officers voted to leave the team after another team member, Officer Corey Budworth, was accused of assault against a protester last summer. According to The Oregonian newspaper, the team members resigned "due to perceived lack of support from City Hall and from the district attorney over the past year during more than 100 consecutive nights of protest coverage."

Mayor Ted Wheeler invited the team members to share their concerns with him, and more than 40 joined a conference call last week. The mayor asked the officers to wait before leaving the team. He wanted time to look for replacements. “I want to acknowledge the toll this past year has taken on them and their families. They have worked long hours under difficult conditions,” the mayor said in a statement.

The team has been part of the city's policing effort during the past year of demonstrations, protests, and riots that began when George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020. This has led to conflict with both the public and with others who say leaders are using the team as a "political pawn." A "political pawn" i​s a person or group whose actions are controlled by more powerful people; in other words, the powerful people make the "political pawns" do what they want in order to gain power or make things happen.

Daryl Turner was the president of the police union. Now he is the organization's executive director. He wrote a letter to the mayor. He wrote, "These officers find themselves in a no-win situation. They are told to stand down and only intervene when things have gotten so out of control that they have no other option than to use high levels of force to regain control of unlawful demonstrations. They are criticized for their perceived inaction on the front end and are criticized for their inevitable use of force on the back end. They can’t win because of the position others have put them in."

Others have different opinions, such as attorneys from the Oregon Justice Resource Center who have sued the city on behalf of the protestors. “Portland Police officers need to understand that they are not above the law nor are their actions exempt from the protections the Constitution aims to provide to people against exactly these types of abuse by police,” the attorneys said in a statement. “The refusal to acknowledge and address this wrongdoing goes to the heart of what’s wrong with Portland Police. The failure of our City’s elected leaders to step in is an indictment of their role in this mess and their complicity in the violence and trauma committed by PPB against the community.”

The response from the city council has been mixed. For now the mayor has reached out to the governor and asked for support. The governor said the Oregon State Police and the Oregon National Guard will be available, if necessary.