The Grind:
They trashed police management.
They mocked city leaders.
They bemoaned the lack of true community-based policing. And they were all Portland officers and supervisors who chose to leave the state’s largest police force in the last year.
In 31 exit interview statements, the employees who turned in their badges or retired were brutally frank about their reasons for getting out.
“The community shows zero support. The city council are raging idiots, in addition to being stupid. Additionally, the mayor and council ignore actual facts on crime and policing in favor of radical leftist and anarchists fantasy. What’s worse is ppb command (lt. and above) is arrogantly incompetent and cowardly,” one retiring detective wrote.
“The only differences between the Titanic and PPB?” he continued. “Deck chairs and a band.”
The Details:
Since July 1, 115 officers have left the Police Bureau, including 74 who retired and 41 who resigned. Two more will resign by the end of this month and one more is retiring. They make up one of the biggest waves of departures in recent memory.
Filling out the exit interview forms is voluntary. About a quarter of those who left in the last year chose to do so.
Nearly all who did said they were dissatisfied with the bureau’s ability to respond to problems and said they wouldn’t recommend their jobs to family or friends.
The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained the forms through a public records request. Read more…