I was interested in a story published earlier this week by The Oregonian/OregonLive describing a program of “bystander training” in light of staffing issues with the Portland police that have resulted in longer police response times to incidents.
It seems like the kind of initiative that would be useful to learn more about, with an eye towards bringing similar training to Honolulu.
Portland police advise people to call 911 first, but as the bureau deals with low staffing, they don’t always come to the scene. In the absence of an immediate police response, numerous organizations teach bystanders how they can safely intervene.
Portland’s Office of Community and Civic Life offers 90-minute free personal safety workshops by request.
Other workshops are offered by the Portland Peace Team, which focuses on non-violent techniques for reducing violence.
“They teach CLARA to address de-escalation: Calm and center, listen, affirm, respond and add,” according to the story.
The Portland Peace Team was founded by Tom Hastings, a conflict resolution professor at Portland State University, and others. The organization provides nonviolent de-escalation at local events, where peace team members wear blue vests to identify themselves.
The Portland Peace Team also provides training in peacekeeping, including de-escalation, bystander intervention, facilitation, and more to community groups.
“The Portland Peace Team offers unarmed public safety assistance to any nonviolent organization or event and has done so since 2012,” Hastings said. “The Portland Peace Team wants to join with all Portlanders to restore our culture of nonviolence, no hatred, and activism for justice.”
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Sounds more like a skit idea for SNL than a real time resolution to a public disturbance. Portland is possibly the worse example of municipal management in the entire United States. The city if bankrupt on so many levels.
I agree. Portland is what Honolulu will be if we keep on the same course.
To me, being a bystander getting involved in ANYthing not immediately related to me and those I’m with is an invitation to unnecessary drama, lawsuits and potential bodily harm with people I do not care about and likely would not want to care about, be they mentally ill homeless folks, “Karens” or even seemingly well put together “normal” people that look perfectly reasonable. Because they WON’T be “perfectly reasonable”.
NONE of them.
I would think that Hawaii Police Force would benefit from conflict resolution teaching.
I think a 90-minute personal safety workshop is a good idea. As well as other training like CPR and basic first-aid.
In regards to Portland, it appears that defunding the police was maybe not such a good idea.
I don’t think anyone actually had a chance to significantly “defund” the police in Portland and the funding has pretty much been reinstated.
The problem with that place is it draws so many drifters from all over the country and then you get the rabble rousing extreme right, white supremacists & separatists from Eastern Oregon that like to stir the pot in Portland to make some kind of point. It all makes for a volatile cocktail that inevitably blows up.