Police chief Kroeker steps down (Portland, OR)

KATU.com ^ | 08/29/2003 | KATU News (ABC)

[TenaciousZ]

One day after recommending a five-and-a-half month suspension for an officer's involvement in a fatal shooting earlier this year, Portland Police Chief Mark announced his resignation from the bureau. Kroeker said he would step down October 17.

Kroeker said he hand-delivered a resignation letter to Portland Mayor Vera Katz less than an hour before delivering the news to residents of the city.

"In this letter, I explain that I am resigning, it's official," said Kroeker. "I also explained I'm resigning because this resignation was requested of me through some intermediaries and I believe it would have been better had we had an opportunity to discuss the current conditions and strategically work through the problems that continue with the Portland Police Bureau."

Kroeker has been chief of the Portland Police Bureau 3.5 years. He retired from the Los Angeles Police Department, where he was deputy chief, in 1997. A 32-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Kroeker unsuccessfully sought the chief's job in Los Angeles three times, twice while that city's deputy chief and once while in Portland.

According to a report in the Portland Tribune, Mayor Katz was asked if she had asked Chief Kroeker to step down, she vehemently denied the rumor.

Kroeker's tenure in Portland has sometimes been a rocky one.

Activists criticized how his department handled a May Day riot in downtown Portland in 2000, when hundreds of demonstrators from various groups clashed with nearly 100 officers in riot gear, resulting in 20 arrests and 22 complaints of excessive police force.

Also in 2000, Katz briefly considered firing Kroeker after the Portland Alliance, an alternative newspaper, published anti-gay statements he made 10 before, when he was with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Kroeker apologized for the remarks and reached out to the gay and lesbian community. He eventually received a vote of confidence from Katz.

More recently, Kroeker was criticized by Portland's black community for the bureau's handling of the death of Kendra James, a 21-year-old Portland woman who was fatally shot by a Portland officer when she tried to drive away during a traffic stop.

Kroeker suspended Officer Scott McCollister without pay for 5.5 months, but chose not to fire him outright for the May 5 shooting.

Kroeker said in a six-page disciplinary letter delivered to McCollister on Thursday that although the shooting was within Portland Police Bureau guidelines and state law, his actions leading up to the shooting were tactically unsound.

Despite the rocky periods, Kroeker said he has fallen in love with the Portland Police Bureau, and also the residents of Portland, and that Portlanders should support its officers more.

"Portland should be really proud of its police force, and malign it a little bit less, and support it a little bit more." said Kroeker. Kroeker finished by stating he kept the promise he made when he took the oath as police chief.

"When I arrived and was sworn in, I promised the people of Portland that I would do my best to lead with compassion and with devotion and that I would give this city the full measure of my commitment and devotion," said Kroeker. "And I've kept that promise."

[dixiechick2000]

That's really too bad.
Kroeker is a "stand-up" guy.
"Stand-up" doesn't work in Portland.

[ex-Texan]

Katz is the problem not Kroeker.

[Salvation]

Too bad Mayor Vera Katz doesn't step down.

[Oorang]

Vera is worse than Goldschmidt, and he was baaad. It's truly sad was a socialist place Portland has become.

[dixiechick2000]

At least she's not running again.
But, she's ruined the city...

She's kinda like Hurricane Hillary.

[saint]

The Portland Police Department doesn't have a hope af a chance of getting better until Katz is gone. She's the one calling the shots in that department. The next chief will just be another puppet, and the situation won't improve until her arm is out of the arse of the chief.

Moral in the department has been low for some time.

Portland- terrorists, communists, anarchists, and freaks all welcome here.

[Justa]

More good news for Portland's expanding depravity, decay and proletarian angst. There is no room for independent consideration of law and social welfare within The Party. Portland police officers are expected to be knee-jerk reactionaries to the politicians.

[clooney4824]

People's Republic of Portland is not an exaggeration. I live here and I have a criminal living next door who has a surveillance camera on my bedroom window-it is on as I write. And the people's Republic of Portland tells me that he has a right to surveille me!!!!! SICK! SICK! ugly city.

[B Knotts]

Kroeker was in trouble in Portland from the start, as he once criticized homosexuality, when he was a L.A. cop. He's a Christian, in a city that pretty much hates Christians.

[Cultural Jihad]

Kroeker has been chief of the Portland Police Bureau 3.5 years. ... Kroeker suspended Officer Scott McCollister without pay for 5.5 months, ...

Apparently this journalism student majored in math.

[B Knotts]

FYI PING

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

I actually got a heads from a source in Portland, this Sunday predicting this would happen.

With Katz as mayor and the city council that is there, I can't imagine any competent cop wanting that job.

So this opens the gate for even worse affirmative action/politically correct candidates.

Hey, Moose is available again?

[dixiechick2000]

"Hey, Moose is available again?"

Oh, Lord...help us.

Good to see you, Gramps!

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> Hey, Moose is available again?

Indeed he is, and that's all I have to say about that.

But I'll weigh in on the shooting that seems to have brought on all of this. Within the law, he says, and maybe he's right (something in need of being fixed there, perhaps), but still wrong enough for a 5.5 month suspension, unpaid at that (fine). I wouldn't presume to judge this without all the evidence, but it's been reported a lot in the media, and I haven't heard a thing yet that would justify that shooting. I have to think that if there was anything at all, they would have mentioned it. That the car could have run over someone's foot while driving away doesn't blow my skirt up.

[Grampa Dave]

Hey, what's wrong with Moose. A lot of Freepers think that he was/is a great police chief.

Welcome back PC Moose?

[connectthedots]

Did any of you guys see the public forum that was held at the church in north Portland about two months ago?

I even made the evening news on a couple of the Portland TV stations. I was the guy who finished his statement by saying that "If the D.A. wants an indictment, he will get one; if he doesn't want an indictment, he won't get it." I also cited a USSC case from 1985 and D.A. Shrunk lied when he said it did not apply to the Kendra James shooting. I called Shrunk a liar and that he knew he was lying.

[dixiechick2000]

Bite your tongue!

[connectthedots]

I was at the public forum. The investigation and autopsy revealed that the muzzle of the gun was at least 24" away when it was shot, the bullet entered the hip of Kendra James and ended up in her upper chest. Kendra James must have been leaning well to her right and in no position to have been driving the car. The officer could not possibly have been 1/2 way into the car and also shot her with the muzzle being at least 24" away. The cops are lying and Kroeker knew it. The autopsy also revealed some contusions consistent with being beaten and she even had at least one tooth filled knocked out.

[happygrl]

He's a Christian, in a city that pretty much hates Christians.

Oregon has the lowest rate of church attendance in the nation.

They sure seem to kowtow to those of the mosque persuasion, however.