Staff for Portland Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly met Thursday with national Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson to strategize over the city labor contract with the Portland police officers’ union, an official in Hardesty’s office said.
According to Oregon Live, Mckesson, 33, met with the officials as part of his work managing Campaign Zero, a group that reviews police union contracts nationwide and points out what it says are policies that shield officers from accountability for misconduct.
Campaign Zero’s analysis of the Portland police contract pointed to what the group says is problematic language that restricts questioning of officers, gives officers undue access to information about investigations of which they are targets, and limits officer discipline and record keeping of misconduct.
Daryl Turner, the police union president, declined to comment.
The official in Hardesty’s office said Mckesson gave “a detailed presentation about policing, contracts, accountability and their relationship to violence.”
Also present at the meeting were members of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, a faith-based group seeking greater police oversight.
