Policing in Portland

Portland’s Dan Handleman directs and is a major activist in Portland Copwatch and Peace and Justice Works. He talks here with Bill Resnick about why police shootings have decreased over the past 25 years, now averaging 5 per year when it was once about 10. Does Portland then have lessons for the nation in controlling police violence? Very little says he, that most of the decline is the product of Tasers that police use at very high rates, for subduing people who show more resistance than the cops will tolerate. Most of the interview deals with what can change police behavior, like assessment of unstable and violent recruits and what’s unheard of now, punishing police crimes against civilians.

Photo Credit: changefromwithin.org