Portland police chief leaves job amid protests

Move allows black man to take over command

Jami Resch announced Monday she was stepping down as chief of the Police Bureau in Portland, Oregon, amid protests against police brutality, ending her tenure after less than six months.

Chuck Lovell, acting captain of the bureau’s Community Services Division, was named chief. Lovell, 46, is the bureau’s fourth African American police chief, the Oregonian reported. His appointment comes as protests against police brutality and racial discrimination have swept across the country after the death of George Floyd.

Resch, who is white, said she asked Lovell to take her place, calling him "the exact right person at the exact right moment." The Oregonian reported Lovell was hired by the Police Bureau in 2002.

“She felt like now was the right time for her to step back and for me to step forward," Lovell said at a news conference. "It was a shock for me, I’ll be honest. But when your boss comes to you and she says, ‘The community needs you. The police bureau needs you.’ To me, I felt like it’s not the time to shrink and back down."

He said, "Leadership’s necessary right now. There’s a lot of hurt people. There’s a lot of healing that we need to start moving towards. I felt like if I in some small way can be the start of the community starting to feel some of that healing, it was my duty to do that.”

Violence – from both police and protesters – has been an issue nationwide. Police in Oregon arrested dozens of protesters who allegedly threw projectiles.

Mayor Ted Wheeler said he instructed police to stop using CS tear gasfor crowd control unless “there is a serious and immediate threat to life safety.” Before that, Wheeler told police to stop using the LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device), which sends out warnings at a higher volume than normal loudspeakers to disperse crowds.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon released a statement Sunday calling the Police Bureau’s response to protesters “excessively violent and dangerous.”

“The role of police is to facilitate, not disperse, peaceful protest,” the organization wrote. “But in Portland for the last several years, the police consistently approach people gathered to protest against the police and white supremacy with intimidation and excessive force.”

Lovell didn’t go into specifics when asked if the bureau would change how it handles protests under his command.

“I think in very general terms, change is coming,” he said. “This is kind of a real precipice for law enforcement all over the country, in this city. We’re going to really look hard at what changes need to be made, what changes make sense. Change for the sake of change doesn’t always have the best outcomes for people.”

Resch was named police chief Dec. 31 after she was deputy chief for eight months, according to her biography on the Police Bureau’s website. She’s been with the bureau since 1999.