6/6/2020
Chief Resch:
All parts of the nation are reacting to at least two major ongoing crises. One is the COVID-19
pandemic that is ravaging our communities. Another is the ongoing victimization of black
communities through inadequate policing practices that fail to administer quality protection.
The lack of any community involved process in the appointment of a new Assistant Chief does
not champion representative leadership or transparency. We will not stand by idly with zero
access to a process for a public leadership position in an institution that has failed to keep our
people safe for generations.
We have relied on city leadership (the Mayor and City Council), along with the Portland Chief of
Police and her leadership team, to provide what has long been promised: real transparency;
increased employee development for rank and file officers; improved recruitment to represent a
greater array of our community; focus on retention of quality officers; and not only the use of
equity and diversity as words but also the input of equity experts in designing processes.
Even in the past few days, we have seen public statements from our Mayor, Police Chief, and
elected leaders, indicating that they understand these crises, the value of the Black people and
community, and how our own systems continue to victimize us for innocuous reasons. Yet
things remain the same.
Hopeful of forward movement, our community is at a standstill while our city Police Bureau
monotonously moves its monotone rank and file into leadership, lacking transparency and
diversity at its highest decision making levels. To be more direct, we've seen Assistant Chief
Lee’s exit and the intentional appointment of his successor can only be painted as a blatant
'whitewashing' attempt in the Bureau's upper ranks. Or, perhaps, there were no qualified staff of
color to promote? Both point to the obvious, the lack of long-term, inclusive planning and the
inability of the Bureau to empower internal employees towards upward mobility and inclusive
opportunities. Fruit of a tree we have consistently fed, watered, and sheltered from storms
which neither feeds, nor waters, nor shelters us with any consistency.
The fact that we can identify three captains that seemed to have been eliminated from
immediate contention highlights Portland’s habitual behavior—its inability and failure to
recognize qualified diverse talent, and provide them the equal interim opportunities as we often
do for white officers.
This system, with its multiple-layered processes to ensure the utmost transparency,
opportunities, and inclusiveness that has been promised, reeks of internal nepotism that
perpetuates itself. It is exclusive of community oversight, diverse staff, and at best marginalizes
the contribution of equity professionals.

 This is a direct example of the lack of understanding in how to build trust and a direct affront to
the legitimacy in process, ironically, the kind of example that initiated and drives the current
protests.
Good leadership does not look for rational excuses or subvert process derived from best
practices to legitimize itself. Leadership owns up to process mistakes and commits itself to
compassion, empathy, sound reasoning, and logic, even when little is at stake. The lack of
execution due to this internal action (and similar actions) produces concrete examples of how
the lack of fundamental process flow is missing and underscores the reasons why the
community distrusts the bureau.
As a result of this, we should immediately agree that a redress is necessary. We need to have
a very public conversation and remedy to, not only this action, but also the systemic intentional
decision making that helps perpetuate a White supremacist culture that puts our most
vulnerable in its crosshairs.
Words from the Mayor, Police Chief, City Council, or any elected leader rings hollow, especially
when they are simultaneously stated while clearly hiding intentional decisions that are counter to
transparency, diversity and sound decision making which are values we have all adopted as a
city.
The right process moving forward is to make the recent Assistant Chief appointment an interim
position and publicly post a long-term Assistant Chief position to internal and external
candidates. Without this intervention, the Mayor and City’s commitment to representative
leadership rings loud, hollow, and tone deaf; the reflection of an all-white leadership team in the
Chief's Office of the Portland Police Bureau in 2020.
In Solidarity
The Men of:
Black Male Achievement
Word is Bond
Coalition of Black Men