portland copwatch releases analysis

from kgw: Police watchdog group Portland Copwatch has released its annual review of the annual report of the Portland City Auditor's Independent Police Review Division. Copwatch's Dan Handelman called the review division report "a mixed bag of useful and buried information."

"There is less of an implication that the drop in complaints, use of force complaints, and officer involved shootings from 2007 to 2009 were the result of IPR's work," Handelman wrote in a summary. "However, the IPR still chose to highlight these trends in their Executive Summary pamphlet, while ignoring, for instance, that only one of 27 cases investigated by the Internal Affairs Division (IAD) was completed by the Bureau within the 5-month guideline."

Handelman added that Portland Copwatch "continues to welcome the IPR's more timely release of their annual report, and applauds the efforts to make the report more readable and objective." Portland Copwatch describes itself as "a grassroots group promoting police accountability through citizen action."