Portland’s new police chief wants to take Police Bureau back to days of true community policing

“I always have been in service to people, community members, strangers,” said Chief Chuck Lovell. “I think it was just what I was designed to do, what I was called to do”

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Jami Resch stepped down as Portland police chief on Monday, June 8, 2020. Resch announced that she asked Chuck Lovell, an African American lieutenant, to serve as the next chief of police. Image: Sean Meagher/The Oregonian via TNS

MCT

oregonlive.com
By Maxine Bernstein

PORTLAND, Ore. — It was Chuck Lovell’s early days as a newspaper delivery boy in his upstate New York community where he developed a knack for getting to know those who lived in his neighborhood, a skill that he says provided the foundation for his police service.

Starting at age 12, going door to door to collect the monthly delivery checks, he developed relationships with 60 to 70 people on his street and nearby. There were some residents who would just crack their door an inch to hand him a check and others who invited him in for dinner. He soon got house keys from residents to collect their mail or water their plants when they took off on vacation. He’d grab his shovel to clear the snow from the driveway of an elderly neighbor.

From that early age, he said he knew in his heart that those were the kind of relationships he wanted to foster and it was those connections that led him to help serve others later in life.

Lovell spoke to reporters two and a half hours after he was formally sworn in as chief by the city auditor via a Zoom video conference Thursday. Lovell was named the city’s new chief last week after Jami Resch made the unprecedented move of stepping down and asking the lieutenant to fill the top job.

Resch, who was chief for just under six months, said she considered the community’s needs and believed the change was necessary in the wake of the public outcry over George Floyd, an African American man who died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Resch also pinned Lovell’s chief’s badge on his shirt uniform Thursday.

Lovell said he wants to return the Police Bureau to true community policing, where an officer is assigned to a district, gets to know the people who live and work in a neighborhood and the residents and business owners hold their district officers accountable.

Yet Lovell acknowledged that with a push by the City Council to remove funding from the Police Bureau’s budget and current vacancies in the force, that ideal may take some time to reach and require significant restructuring of personnel in the bureau.

It’s time for it to come back in a way where people in the community know their police officer, where an officer has accountability to a community because they have to show up every day there, provide service and work together to solve the problems in that community,’’ he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen soon.’’

He said he wished the focus would turn from defunding the Police Bureau to promoting and supporting what works. He said he’s been on calls in recent days with city commissioners and the mayor as they prepare to vote on the bureau’s budget later Thursday.

“I don’t think any police chief wants the police defunded,’’ he said. “Crime doesn’t stop because of a pandemic or because of mass protests. At the end of the day, people need good police services.

“Defunding is not the right approach,” he added. “Right fund, right size, right align, right incentivize and get people the police service they know that makes sense for them and is in the best interest of the community.’’

He said he’s committed to listening to the community and their desires about the future direction of the Police Bureau.

Lovell is taking over as the City Council is preparing to eliminate the Police Bureau’s Gun Violence Reduction Team and return officers who have been assigned to the Youth Services and Transit divisions back to patrol, while hundreds of demonstrators have taken to the streets each day calling for the defunding of police and protesting police violence.

He also said he recognized that police currently are handling some types of calls that don’t need a law enforcement response. He described the closure of Central City’s Sobering Station, where police used to take people who were on the street intoxicated and unable to care for themselves, as a loss but said he hopes another agency steps up to provide a similar service.

“We need good community partners to step into roles that are better suited for them,’’ he said.

He said he’s very happy with the current command staff and is still evaluating if any changes will occur there. He does plan to move the bureau’s equity manager into the chief’s office and have that manager report directly to him.

Lovell was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and moved with his family two hours north at age 7. He joined the U.S. Air Force at age 19, spent four years in active duty and two years in the reserves. He said he obtained a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration from Park University. He also is set to receive a master’s degree in strategic leadership from the University of Charleston, according to the police bureau. He moved to Portland at age 28 and applied to the Police Bureau, joining it in 2002.

He served as a school resource officer from 2007 through 2011, was promoted to sergeant in July 2011 and lieutenant in July 2017. He has served as a gang resistance education and training instructor, crisis negotiator and member of the Police Honor Guard. As a sergeant, he worked in patrol and was assigned to human trafficking and property crime units, and helped oversee the bureau’s recruitment.

As a lieutenant, he served as former Chief Danielle Outlaw’s executive assistant when she came to Portland from Oakland and most recently oversaw a new community outreach division for Resch. The division includes the Behavioral Health Unit, a community engagement officer, a new homeless community liaison and a new civilian community engagement specialist.

In an odd twist, the day after the announcement of his appointment as chief, he was promoted from lieutenant to the captain’s rank, the rank that commanders, assistant chiefs and even the chief return to if they leave the higher ranks.

Lovell has been active with the community, serving as a mentor in a “Boys to Men’’ program and on the board of Lines for Life, a nonprofit that operates a crisis call center.

“I always have been in service to people, community members, strangers,’’ he said. “ I think it was just what I was designed to do, what I was called to do.’’

Next: 6 ways departments are strengthening community policing

(c)2020 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)

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