2019 FOLLOW-UP
May 20, 2019
In the year since our audit
of the Gang Enforcement
Team, the Police Bureau
has made some progress
in implementing our five
recommendations for
patrol.

Police Bureau still needs to evaluate the
effectiveness of traffic stops
Substantial work remains in documenting the investigative
reasons for traffic stops and setting goals for the effectiveness of
stops.
We will follow up again in one year to check if the remaining
recommendations are implemented. In early 2019, the Police
Bureau restructured the Gang Enforcement Team as the Gun
Violence Reduction Team.

We audited how well the Gang Enforcement Team was meeting its goals and what the results of its
work were. We issued two audit reports in 2018 about gang enforcement patrols and gang crime
investigations.
Our audit of gang enforcement patrols found the team was carrying out traffic stops that
disproportionately affected African Americans, while community members were concerned that the
stops were too broad and not limited to criminal gang suspects. The Bureau could not demonstrate
that these stops were effective. We recommended the Bureau analyze stops data, set goals for
effectiveness, and publicly report results.
2018 Recommendations

2019 Auditor’s Status Update
The Police Bureau analyzed the demographics of
people stopped by Gang Enforcement officers in
2016 and 2017.
The Bureau reported that 61 percent of people in
2016 and 56 percent in 2017 were Black.

Resolved

The Police Bureau should
regularly analyze and publish
demographic data regarding
Gang Enforcement Team
traffic stops.

The Bureau compared the demographics of people
stopped to the demographics of gang crime
victims. This benchmark showed that the
percentage of Black people stopped was below the
percentage of Black people that the Bureau
considered as victims of gang crime (71 percent in
2016 and 63 percent in 2017).
This comparison differs from those in our audit,
which compared the demographics of those
stopped to the demographics of people injured in
traffic crashes and crime victims. A good
benchmark reflects who is at risk of being stopped,
assuming no bias. We encourage the Bureau to
include these comparisons in its analyses.
The Bureau committed to including stops data for
the Gun Violence Reduction Team in future reports.

 2018 Recommendations

2019 Auditor’s Status Update
The team has not monitored data on mere
conversations, which are interactions in
which a person has not been detained.

The Gang Enforcement Team
should regularly monitor stops
data and the percentage of
encounters recorded as “mere
conversations” and provide
training to officers on when this
classification should be used.
In
Process

Little
Progress

Gang Enforcement officers received training
on how to enter stops data.
The Bureau still has no comprehensive data
on mere conversations, because some
interactions are captured as such and some
are not. Mere conversations coded as such
decreased: The Bureau reported 637 in 2016
and 191 in 2017.
The Bureau said it was reviewing the
feasibility of capturing more data on mere
conversations in the future.

The Bureau should evaluate the
effectiveness of suppression
operations by the Gang
Enforcement Team by continuing
review of crime trends and by
reviewing arrest outcomes.

Since March 2017, the team has carried out
five suppression operations. The Bureau has a
draft analysis of three of them. It does not,
however, review whether those targeted by
the operations were arrested. The Bureau said
it was committed to reviewing the effect of
future operations on crime.

The Gang Enforcement Team
should require its officers to
document the investigative reason
for their traffic stops. The Police
Bureau should regularly analyze
the data and publish the results.

The team still does not document
investigative reasons for most stops. The
Bureau said it plans to write a new directive
to address this recommendation.

The Gang Enforcement Team
should set goals to measure the
effectiveness of patrol stops, and
record whether a stop resulted in
contacting a criminal gang
suspect. The Bureau should
regularly analyze the data and
publish the results.

The Bureau has not set effectiveness goals for
the Gun Violence Reduction Team’s traffic
stops. The Bureau wants to hire a consultant
to analyze Fiscal Year 2018-19 data. The
Bureau said it cannot track if stops resulted in
contact with criminal gang suspects because
gang designations no longer exist.

Visit www.portlandoregon.gov/auditservices to view our gang crime investigations
follow-up report.
Contact:

Kari Guy, kari.guy@portlandoregon.gov
Minh Dan Vuong, minhdan.vuong@portlandoregon.gov

Visit Audit Services website to view the original
2018 audit report:
www.portlandoregon.gov/auditservices