PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — It’s been 10 months since Danielle Outlaw became Portland’s first African-American female police chief.
In order to bring police officers and communities together, Chief Outlaw tried a new approach.
Recently, Ken Boddie headed to Champions Barbershop in Northeast Portland where he facilitated a discussion among about 20 community members, young people and police officers — some in plain clothes, others in uniform.
“Everything is discussed in the barbershop,” Chief Outlaw said. “I would even say we can solve world hunger in the barbershop because this is where the discussions are had. This is where the community goes.”
Champions held Portland’s first barbershop forum — a concept Chief Outlaw developed in Oakland, California to go beyond the traditional community meeting or town hall.
She said, “Community input is huge. I can’t come in here and say I’m going to do this exactly the same way that I did it somewhere else.”
The exchanges touched on sensitive issues.
Community member and director of Portland’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention Antoinette Edwards said, “The stigma that we have, the system — that you’re a snitch. At some point, that’s the devaluing of a life.”
Outlaw also shared some insight on how police officers feel.
“The same way we as black people don’t like to be caste into this broad barrel of generalizations, officers don’t like it either because we’re human beings,” Outlaw said.
With Portland’s history, there’s still mistrust of police in the community and cops still have to do their jobs. But, on the night of Aug. 27, some relationships were established.
“The concept again, really is to make sure that we’re in a place where, not only the dialogue is meaningful, but we’re interacting with the community — where we want to be,” Outlaw said.
More barbershop forums are expected in the future.