Respect and trust in the Portland Police Bureau is at an all-time low. Citizens are fed up with disengaged police management, an impotent police review board, and cavalier cops.

Voters are dissatisfied and city hall is unresponsive.

A dozen specters of unfinished business loom over the Bureau, some deserved, some perhaps not. There have been repairs over the years, mostly patchwork, but transformation is not yet conceivable, much less on the table for discussion.

So what constitutes reform for the Portland Police Bureau? … more

Jason Renaud is the co-founder of the Mental Health Association of Portland and a candidate for Portland City Council, see www.jasonforportland.com

Open your daily newspaper, or go online and scan the news sites. You’ll find scant “new” news. Don’t get scared. It’s just today as managing editors part out holiday leave.

In the post-holiday edition press releases puff up to front pages stories, recipes get printed in larger type, the op ed and letters to the editor bin gets shaken out.

What we read is the future where few if any journalists gather the news, type in a sensible and somewhat impartial manner, print on cheap paper, find adverting dollars to supplant the various costs, and throw it on your doorstep each morning. … more