PORTLAND — The Racial Equity Steering Committee last week heard concerns about police overreach and a suggestion to prohibit no-knock warrants.
Resident Joey Brunelle told the committee, which is due to bring its recommendations to the City Council by the end of January, that he is concerned about the Portland Police Department’s relationship with people with power in the city. He specifically cited Chief Frank Clark’s recent request that the department have access to both the external cameras at Preble Street’s proposed homeless service center and to internal cameras in its courtyard.
“Police don’t have that power for any other building in the city,” Brunelle told committee members Dec. 17.
In a letter to the Planning Board Dec. 4, Clark said access to those videos would help police monitor the Bayside area, where, he said, 21% of violent crimes in the city have occurred since January 2015.
“Allowing the police department unfettered access to the camera system will assist us in addressing neighborhood concerns and better serving crime victims,” Clark wrote. “Additionally, it is recommended that cameras be placed on the interior of the facility to monitor common areas and the courtyard.”
Brunelle also took exception to the police asking the council’s legislative committee to support a state bill that would make it illegal to publicize officers’ private information such as their address, telephone number or license plate number, and he was was concerned about the department working with City Manager Jon Jennings to partially deny the Police Citizen Review Committee’s request to have two civilians on the department’s internal use-of-force committee.
“They all show just how much power and influence the police department has at all levels of the city,” Brunelle said.
Helen Sturgis-Bright, a teacher at Deering High School, urged the committee to look into getting the police department to ban no-knock warrants, which, according to the Legal Policy Institute, are search warrants that allow “police officers to enter certain premises without first knocking and announcing their presence or purpose prior to entering.”
The practice has now been banned in Louisville, Kentucky, where police conducted a no-knock warrant and fatally shot Breonna Taylor as part of a drug investigation. Sturgis-Bright said three other states, Virginia, Oregon and Florida, have also banned no-knock warrants and wants to see Maine become the fourth.
No-knock warrants, she said, inequitably target people of color, are dangerous and put law enforcement and residents at risk.
Resident Marty Pottenyer urged the committee to engage with all participants of the criminal justice system, both law enforcement and those who are incarcerated, to get a better sense of the racial equity changes needed in Portland.
“There is a lot of good info to be gained,” she said.
Clark could not be reached about the concerns expressed at the meeting.
Samaa Abdurraqib, the equity committee’s facilitator, said public comment will again be accepted at the group’s Jan. 14 meeting.
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