|
Posted on 04/29/2005 12:18:39 AM PDT by Stoat
|
|
|
(Bio follows...from PDF at above linked site)
Tom Potter: Activist, Leader, Proud Dad
Tom Potter has served the city he loves for 38 years -
as its police chief, a community leader and civil rights
activist. It is a lifetime of achievement in which Tom has
shown how one person with vision can change the
culture of the city’s largest bureau; how a true leader
stands up for what he knows is right, and how trust is
forged by welcoming everyone in the community to
share in Portland’s promise.
The seeds of Tom’s inclusive style of leadership were
first sown in the summer of 1966, when as a new cop
walking the beat in the Sellwood and Brooklyn
neighborhoods he learned that the community around
him had important lessons to teach to anyone willing to
listen.
One, especially, lingers in Tom’s mind. A Sellwood
resident had waved down Tom’s patrol car and asked
how he and his neighbors could help with the crime in
Sellwood. Tom wasn’t sure what to tell the citizen so he
talked it over with his sergeant at the end of the shift. The older Sergeant snorted and said Tom
should tell the citizen to “go back in his house...we’ll take care of things!” Tom thought people like
the Sellwood resident are the ones closest to the problems because they lived with them every day.
Wouldn’t it make sense to include them in finding solutions?
Over the next 27 years of service, Tom took that simple idea and put it into practice everyday. As a
young patrolman, he was the first Portland officer to join a neighborhood association. After all, if he
was assigned to a neighborhood, shouldn’t he be a real part of it? As a Lieutenant, he was nationally
recognized for leading the best Crime Prevention program in the country. But just as important to
Tom, he also helped develop the first police trading card program, which helped kids see the
neighborhood cop as a real person – and someone they could trust.
In 1986, Tom was promoted to Captain in the North Precinct. Local motel owners and neighbors
were having trouble with prostitution and drug dealing along Interstate Avenue. Tom knew he could
assign more officers to the street. Or he could try something he thought might bring long-term
solutions – bring neighbors together and help them figure out what worked best. Tom continued to
believe this kind of policing – Community Policing – brought real change.
Four years later, Portland’s Police Chief job opened up again. Popular Mayor Bud Clark tapped Tom
to take over the city’s largest bureau. With crime rising and a lack of trust between the bureau’s
1,300 officers and the city they served, Clark could not have made a better choice than a cop who
believed so passionately in the wisdom of the community.
Tom created the Chief’s Forum, which brought together neighborhoods, police officers and the
business community to solve common problems. He worked with citizens to start citizens’ foot
patrols to walk their neighborhoods, and invited citizens to help change the bureau to make its work
more responsive to their needs. A Family Services Division was formed to work with high schools to
develop anti-crime and child-protection programs, and better protect victims of domestic violence.
When he first became chief, the bureau's 23 African-American officers were meeting regularly to
formulate plans for a lawsuit against the city. Tom listened to the concerns of the diverse
communities he served. He started a “Bias Crimes” unit to investigate crimes where prejudice played
a part, and ended the bureau’s involvement in INS raids and deportation arrests aimed at Latinos.
He aggressively recruited more women and minorities to the bureau, saying citizens must see
themselves in the faces of the officers in their neighborhoods. He made sure new officers received
the training they would need to rise through the ranks. Two would eventually become Chief
themselves. Later, at a gathering of Oregon Black Law Enforcement United, Tom appeared and was
given a standing ovation. The idea of a lawsuit was dropped.
Tom believes that to be a leader is to do the right thing no matter what others think. Or the political
fallout. When he became the first Chief to march in uniform in Portland’s Gay PRIDE Day parade,
Tom’s resignation was demanded by the Oregon Citizen’s Alliance, and even some of his own
officers. But Tom never wavered, and groups ranging from the Urban League of Portland to the
Citizens Crime Commission rallied to his support. He marched in every parade as Chief – even
delaying his retirement so he could march in uniform one last time.
The Willamette Week editorialized: “In just 12 months, he’s managed to restore public trust in the
Police Bureau, take a gutsy stand on gay rights and spread the gospel of community policing from
St. John’s to east county.”
When Tom finally stepped down, major crime had declined despite the city’s growth spurt. Rigorous
officer training – cancelled by the previous Chief – had been reinstituted and the training budget
doubled. City surveys showed citizen satisfaction growing dramatically. Tom was ready for new
challenges.
After leaving the bureau, Tom was asked by police organizations across the country to consult on
community safety issues, affirmative action and community involvement. He was the top choice to
lead the Clinton Administration’s new Community Oriented Policing Service, which promised to put
100,000 new officers on the nation’s streets committed to community policing. There was just one
hitch – Washington was uncomfortable with Tom’s strong advocacy for the rights of gays and
lesbians. Again, Tom lead by example by refusing to back away from doing what he knew was right.
Tom said no thanks.
In 1997, Tom became the Interim Executive Director of the Oregon Public Safety Training and
Standards, the state academy which trains every police officer, firefighter and dispatcher except the
state police. The academy was reeling from charges of anti-Semitism and gender bias after a Jewish
corrections recruit charged that three instructors harassed him. An academy investigation
substantiated the recruit's charges. Tom’s integrity made him an easy choice to get the academy
back on track.
A year later, Tom served as Executive Director of New Avenues for Youth, which helps homeless
children get off the streets. Tom is credited with helping bring together the various agencies serving
homeless youths in Portland. This experience helped shape Tom’s vision for using the mayor’s office
to promote safe homes and safe schools for our kids.
Throughout his career – from street cop to Community Policing advocate to working with homeless
kids – Tom has always shown a compassion for people who need an extra push to succeed, and a
willingness to include every part of the community in decisions. Some of that compassion may come
from the struggles of his own family to succeed.
Tom was born in Bend – but only after his mother, Frances, insisted that her fifth child be born in a
hospital. His father, Fred, struggled to keep a job, and when Tom was born the family lived in a tent
in a small town outside of Bend. When Tom was six, his father died and the family moved to
Portland. Tom graduated from Cleveland High School. (He would graduate again – from the
University of Portland with a degree in Police Administration – 13 years after he joined the Portland
Police.)
Tom has four children and fourteen grandchildren who gather regularly at Tom's house where he
cooks gumbo for his large family. His daughter, Katie, is Portland's first openly gay police officer.
Tom and his wife, Karin Hansen, a former Portland high school teacher, live with their cat Spike in
the Woodstock neighborhood.
Even while running for mayor, with a packed schedule that often stretches from just after dawn until
late in the evening, Tom never misses his weekly rounds as a volunteer driver for the Loaves and
Fishes Meals on Wheels program delivering hot meals to housebound elderly people in southeast
Portland. He does it, he says, in memory of his mother.
For all of his accomplishments, Tom is reluctant to talk about himself. So when Tom was first
gathering friends around for his grassroots campaign, he explained why he is running by telling
them about the inscription on the side of downtown’s Skidmore Fountain. Although the words were
put there in 1888, Tom told everyone that they were still relevant today. And an inspiration for a
man who wants to give back to the city he loves:
“Good citizens are the riches of a city.”
More About Tom
Community Service
Portland Police Sunshine Division; Parents Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays; Shepherd Legal
Scholarship Fund Committee; Portland Citizens Crime Commission; Multnomah County Commission
on Children and Families; Driver, Meals On Wheels - Loaves and Fishes (Global Visions, ACLU,
Jefferson High School mentoring program, Friends of Trees)
Education
Hosford Grade School
Cleveland High School
University of Portland
Hobbies
Archaeology
Hiking
Camping
Bicycling
I, too, would like to demand that the FBI raise my security clearance. And if they don't, I'll refuse to call in tips if I ever witness possible terrorist activity. Of course, I'm just kidding, but wouldn't that be similar to what the mayor is doing?
I would suspect that if you were the Mayor of Portland, especially a Mayor with law enforcement experience, that you would understand that there is a reason why Mayors are given a different security clearance than others in more sensitive, terrorism-specific positions and that your position simply did not rise to the 'need to know' threshold that others do.
Of course, EVERYBODY would like to know everything and have the maximum security clearance that exists. Giving such a security clearance to everybody would, of course, defeat the purpose of security clearances entirely.
I've heard Nationally-syndicated Oregon talk show host Lars Larson speak on this issue, and apparently there's quite a bit more to this matter than what's divulged in this short article. His perspective is that the Mayor essentially has an ego problem and is grandstanding on this issue for political reasons.
Since I haven't heard any other Mayors complaining about their JTTF security clearances, I'm guessing that the truth may be more toward Lars' direction.
-Portland, Oregon- hub of terror? Some Surprising Connections--
As usual, our friend Backhoe has it covered and is all over the Portland Terrorism Scene !
Thank you!
(Handing you a megaphone so that you will be certain to be heard over their Grateful Dead tape loops)
I believe Bridge City has been crawling with federal undercover operatives for the past four years tapping phones and watching key players.
Appreciate the info- thanks.
Credit where credit is due: at least there's one sane guy left in Portland...Dan Saltzman, who voted against this stupid move.
I think Tom Potter is mentally ill.
As for the rest of them, they're just juvenile.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
