The Portland Auditor’s
Police Review Division
released an 82-page report making thirteen recommendations for
reforms of Portland Police Bureau practices based on a review of
seven closed case police shootings ranging from 2004 to 2010. They
were not the only police shootings in that time period, but were
selected because of the victims’ emotional or mental distress
levels. Though the first “common theme” the report found in the
seven incidents was a delay in interviewing the police officer
involved (up to seven days in one instance), eliminating that delay
was not one of the recommendations. That delay is mandated by the
police union contract. From the report:

In addition, the trend in more recent fatal shootings
is for officers, upon advice of counsel, to decline to provide
voluntary statements to detectives.  As a result, any
advantage of affording officers a couple days delay so that a
voluntary statement can be obtained no longer exists.

And, as noted above, even in the cases in which
officers agree to voluntary interviews, those voluntary interviews
similarly do not occur on the date of the incident.  The
“48-hour rule” dictated by the current  Bureau labor contracts
continues to impede the Bureau from obtaining even a compelled
timely version of what occurred from the involved
officers. 

As for the thirteen actual recommendations, the police chief
Michael Reese responded promptly that he agrees with the vast
majority of the recommendations and that some are already in place,
though sometimes it’s unclear how. From the chief’s response:

6. PPB should consider developing protocols for how
Cadets are to be interviewed in future critical
incidents.
Agree. 
This is our current protocol. The Portland Police
Bureau Detective Division conducts interviews of all witnesses to a
critical incident, such as an officer involved shooting. These
interviews are initiated during the early stages of an
investigation and oftentimes may continue in the days and weeks
following the incident. As cadets are not sworn police officers,
they are interviewed in the same manner as any other witness to a
critical incident and do not have any special restrictions or
limitations because of their status as a cadet.

As reiterated by the police chief, the report commended the
Portland Police Bureau for being “superior to most comparable law
enforcement agencies in the way in which it reviews  critical
incidents” and for “the Bureau’s history of opening itself to
outside review and acceptance of recommendations from independent
sources [which] likewise sets it apart from many
agencies.” 

This is the sixth such review of officer shootings or deaths in
custody since the division was established in 2001. OPB News

reports a seventh review of six additional cases from the same
time period as these seven is expected in a year and a half.