PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland police still maintain an informal list of active gang members despite discontinuing a formal gang designation practice following criticism from community advocates last year, according to a city audit.
Portland auditors were examining the operations of the police bureau's Gang Enforcement Team when they discovered that it has kept the list since 2015, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Wednesday.
The first report released by the city auditor deals with traffic stops.
“We found that [the Gang Enforcement Team] disproportionately stop African-American drivers,” said Mary Hull Caballero, who is Portland’s City Auditor.
She said of all gang enforcement traffic stops, 59 percent involved an African-American person. African-Americans make up only about six percent of total drivers in the city.
“It is racial profiling and what it does is it builds up a sense of resentment in the community,” said Dr. LeRoy Haynes, a strong voice in Portland's African-American community.
Auditors did not say officers are racially profiling, but did say the Gang Enforcement Team has a lot of discretion. For instance, officers can pull someone over for not using a turn signal when they should have. However, the real intention behind the stop could be suspicion that there’s a weapon or gang-affiliated person in the car. Caballero said the problem is there's not enough documentation of that process.
“What we’re saying is if the Gang Enforcement Team were to document why they’re pulling people over and what the result was of the traffic stop, did they find a gun, did they arrest a gang suspect, that would go a long way dispelling the concern that the community has,” Caballero explained.
The list that's posted on the bureau's intranet is not supervised and does not include a method for notifying subjects on it, auditors said. The list contains information of about 30 people, including their names, addresses, gang affiliations and details on their probation or supervision.
The second report zeroed in on a database, or list, that officers have access to internally which documents at-risk people who could be victims of violence or possible gang members.
The list is used to provide investigators with potential leads, ultimately aiming to prevent victimization and violence, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a bureau spokesman.
"The purpose is to identify people who have demonstrated that they are at risk for being involved in gang-related violence, based on recent involvement in such incidents," Simpson said.
The bureau ended a gang designation system last fall after about two decades of operation. Under that system, officers were required to record evidence that people met criteria to be on the list. Police also had to notify people on the list and provide an opportunity for them to appeal the designation.
City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero said police need supervision over the active list, noting the 1994 ruling by a federal judge that prohibited Portland police from designating gang members without due process.
Police Chief Danielle Outlaw said guidelines for the list will be drafted by July. The guidelines are expected to cover how police identify people for the list and how its information is used.
"As a police agency, we remain committed to transparency and are willing to always pursue enhancements that benefit the bureau's efforts in ensuring public safety in our service of the Portland community," Outlaw said in a statement.