Police battle not only crime but public trust
PORTLAND, Ore. - An exclusive KATU News/Survey USA poll found Wednesday that just over half of those surveyed said they trust the Portland Police Bureau, raising the question whether the bureau has a public relations problem after two high-profile police shootings.
The survey, which polled 500 adults who live in Portland, found that 56 percent trust the police, 36 percent don’t, and 8 percent aren’t sure.
The same people were also asked if Portland police are too quick to use lethal force and if they use lethal force appropriately.
The results on those questions were more evenly split: 45 percent said it’s too quick, 42 percent said officers use lethal force appropriately, and 13 percent aren’t sure.
The survey had a margin of error of about 4.5 percent.
The bureau’s PR problem plays out in at least three ways. First, it affects what parents tell their children about how to perceive police officers; second, it affects the way everyday police officers do their job, and third, in an extreme but perhaps tangential way, it boils over to violent confrontations between police and protesters.
One such confrontation was captured by a KATU News photographer Tuesday night when a protester threw a bicycle at a Portland motorcycle police officer. It is only the most recent visual demonstration of those not happy with the police.
“I see tensions on a daily basis,” said Portland police Officer Jason Jones who patrols the Cully neighborhood in Northeast Portland.
He said building trust with certain pockets of the community is especially difficult after Monday’s shooting of a homeless man at Hoyt Arboretum and an unarmed and distraught Aaron Campbell last January.
“We’ll be driving and a couple, say, younger kids will be on the street corner, they’ll see us, and they’ll spit on the ground as a sign of disrespect,” he said. “There are certain families and groups that actually say ‘don’t talk to the police, don’t trust the police - much the same way my parents taught me, don’t talk (to) or trust strangers.”
At a neighborhood park, young mothers said they were conflicted about what to tell their kids about police officers.
“I didn’t feel quite comfortable telling her that I fully trusted the police department,” said Leah Mayes.
“That’s a hard question, because I have little kids, and I’m trying to teach them that police officers are your friends,” Jessica Katz said. “What’s been going on lately just gives you a little bit of a pause.”
Portland State University sociologist Randy Blazak said police need to know they can’t get away with bad behavior, but they must also help the public understand their jobs by explaining to them how police are trained to eliminate a threat – not just by shooting an armed man in the leg.
“There is a real PR problem here, and the PR problem is the perception that the Portland police are unrestrained when it comes to violence,” Blazak said.
Jones said “we’re not very good at advertising or marketing ourselves, and I don’t know how to change that.”
For Jones, making daily connections with people in the community will have to do for now.
One other thing of note in the poll, 67 percent of Portland blacks said they don’t trust the Portland Police Bureau. For Hispanics, the number was 82 percent.
The trust level among whites was much higher.