News on allegations of police corruptions and police brutality are splashed in morning dailies every day. The Oregon Police has gained a big share of this notoriety.
In recent years, many innocent men have died at the hands of Portland police, mostly as results of brutal and excessive use of force by the apprehending police enforcers.
The Hot Spot Enforcement Team (HEAT) of the Oregon Police Bureau has been accused of conducting their operations with military-style and pre-meditated killings of alleged criminals.
Among their victims are Keaton Otis, Jack Collins, Aaron Campbell, Kendra James, and James Chasse. The public saw their cases as public lynching.
These raise questions about the bureau’s training and its ability to discipline its officers earning the Portland Police Bureau as the most troubled law enforcement outfit in the metro area.
Under the Portland Police Bureau are several law enforcing agencies.
Among them is the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
Over the past five years, its deputies have committed crimes against the people they were supposed to protect. These include repeated armed robbery and forging prescriptions to murder. One of its men even had sex with their inmates.
As proof of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office’s lack of discipline among its deputy officers are:
- In 200, $2.25 million legal claim was paid to a SWAT deputy widow when her husband was shot dead in a training accident.
- In 2003, a black deputy officer was paid $1.5 million for racial discrimination he suffered from his fellow deputies
- In 2006, Deputy David Verbos robbed businessmen to feed his drug addiction.
- In 2006, Sgt. Raymond Lovelace was caught forging prescriptions.
- In 2007, two other deputies were dismissed for having sex with teenage female sheriff’s cadets.
- In 2008, Deputy Brandon Claggett was sentenced to 7 years when he forced a teenage girl for a ride and sent her sexually explicit photos
- In 2009, the same deputy officer threatened to murder his wife and the man he suspected of being with her.
What makes the cases of the Oregon Police disturbing is the continuous denial of the men in charge of its operations. Although some irregularities happened, they insist they were isolated cases. With this kind of mentality, it is not surprising that corruptions and notoriety of the agency have become worse.
