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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Tom Potter |
| Address |
Portland, Oregon , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
September 12, 1940
(83 years)
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| Contributor | InspectorMorse |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Mar 26, 2017 03:20pm |
| Tags |
Atheist -
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| Info | Tom Potter: Activist, Leader, Proud Dad
Tom Potter has served the city he loves for 38 years - as its police chief, a community leader and civil rights activist. It is a lifetime of achievement in which Tom has shown how one person with vision can change the culture of the city�s largest bureau; how a true leader stands up for what he knows is right, and how trust is forged by welcoming everyone in the community to share in Portland�s promise.
The seeds of Tom�s inclusive style of leadership were first sown in the summer of 1966, when as a new cop walking the beat in the Sellwood and Brooklyn neighborhoods he learned that the community around him had important lessons to teach to anyone willing to listen.
One, especially, lingers in Tom�s mind. A Sellwood resident had waved down Tom�s patrol car and asked how he and his neighbors could help with the crime in Sellwood. Tom wasn�t sure what to tell the citizen so he talked it over with his sergeant at the end of the shift. The older Sergeant snorted and said Tom should tell the citizen to �go back in his house...we�ll take care of things!� Tom thought people like the Sellwood resident are the ones closest to the problems because they lived with them every day. Wouldn�t it make sense to include them in finding solutions?
Over the next 27 years of service, Tom took that simple idea and put it into practice everyday. As a young patrolman, he was the first Portland officer to join a neighborhood association. After all, if he was assigned to a neighborhood, shouldn�t he be a real part of it? As a Lieutenant, he was nationally recognized for leading the best Crime Prevention program in the country. But just as important to Tom, he also helped develop the first police trading card program, which helped kids see the neighborhood cop as a real person � and someone they could trust.
In 1986, Tom was promoted to Captain in the North Precinct. Local motel owners and neighbors were having trouble with prostitution and drug dealing along Interstate Avenue. Tom knew he could assign more officers to the street. Or he could try something he thought might bring long-term solutions � bring neighbors together and help them figure out what worked best. Tom continued to believe this kind of policing � Community Policing � brought real change.
Four years later, Portland�s Police Chief job opened up again. Popular Mayor Bud Clark tapped Tom to take over the city�s largest bureau. With crime rising and a lack of trust between the bureau�s 1,300 officers and the city they served, Clark could not have made a better choice than a cop who believed so passionately in the wisdom of the community.
Tom created the Chief�s Forum, which brought together neighborhoods, police officers and the business community to solve common problems. He worked with citizens to start citizens� foot patrols to walk their neighborhoods, and invited citizens to help change the bureau to make its work more responsive to their needs. A Family Services Division was formed to work with high schools to develop anti-crime and child-protection programs, and better protect victims of domestic violence.
When he first became chief, the bureau's 23 African-American officers were meeting regularly to formulate plans for a lawsuit against the city. Tom listened to the concerns of the diverse communities he served. He started a �Bias Crimes� unit to investigate crimes where prejudice played a part, and ended the bureau�s involvement in INS raids and deportation arrests aimed at Latinos.
He aggressively recruited more women and minorities to the bureau, saying citizens must see themselves in the faces of the officers in their neighborhoods. He made sure new officers received the training they would need to rise through the ranks. Two would eventually become Chief themselves. Later, at a gathering of Oregon Black Law Enforcement United, Tom appeared and was given a standing ovation. The idea of a lawsuit was dropped.
Tom believes that to be a leader is to do the right thing no matter what others think. Or the political fallout. When he became the first Chief to march in uniform in Portland�s Gay PRIDE Day parade, Tom�s resignation was demanded by the Oregon Citizen�s Alliance, and even some of his own officers. But Tom never wavered, and groups ranging from the Urban League of Portland to the Citizens Crime Commission rallied to his support. He marched in every parade as Chief � even delaying his retirement so he could march in uniform one last time.
The Willamette Week editorialized: �In just 12 months, he�s managed to restore public trust in the Police Bureau, take a gutsy stand on gay rights and spread the gospel of community policing from St. John�s to east county.�
When Tom finally stepped down, major crime had declined despite the city�s growth spurt. Rigorous officer training � cancelled by the previous Chief � had been reinstituted and the training budget doubled. City surveys showed citizen satisfaction growing dramatically. Tom was ready for new challenges.
After leaving the bureau, Tom was asked by police organizations across the country to consult on community safety issues, affirmative action and community involvement. He was the top choice to lead the Clinton Administration�s new Community Oriented Policing Service, which promised to put 100,000 new officers on the nation�s streets committed to community policing. There was just one hitch � Washington was uncomfortable with Tom�s strong advocacy for the rights of gays and lesbians. Again, Tom lead by example by refusing to back away from doing what he knew was right. Tom said no thanks.
In 1997, Tom became the Interim Executive Director of the Oregon Public Safety Training and Standards, the state academy which trains every police officer, firefighter and dispatcher except the state police. The academy was reeling from charges of anti-Semitism and gender bias after a Jewish corrections recruit charged that three instructors harassed him. An academy investigation substantiated the recruit's charges. Tom�s integrity made him an easy choice to get the academy back on track.
A year later, Tom served as Executive Director of New Avenues for Youth, which helps homeless children get off the streets. Tom is credited with helping bring together the various agencies serving homeless youths in Portland. This experience helped shape Tom�s vision for using the mayor�s office to promote safe homes and safe schools for our kids.
Throughout his career � from street cop to Community Policing advocate to working with homeless kids � Tom has always shown a compassion for people who need an extra push to succeed, and a willingness to include every part of the community in decisions. Some of that compassion may come from the struggles of his own family to succeed.
Tom was born in Bend � but only after his mother, Frances, insisted that her fifth child be born in a hospital. His father, Fred, struggled to keep a job, and when Tom was born the family lived in a tent in a small town outside of Bend. When Tom was six, his father died and the family moved to Portland. Tom graduated from Cleveland High School. (He would graduate again � from the University of Portland with a degree in Police Administration � 13 years after he joined the Portland Police.)
Tom has four children and eleven grandchildren who gather regularly at Tom's house where he cooks gumbo for his large family. His daughter, Katie, is Portland's first openly gay police officer. Tom and his wife, Karin Hansen, a former Portland high school teacher, live with their cat Spike in the Woodstock neighborhood.
Even while running for mayor, with a packed schedule that often stretches from just after dawn until late in the evening, Tom never misses his weekly rounds as a volunteer driver for the Loaves and Fishes Meals on Wheels program delivering hot meals to housebound elderly people in southeast Portland. He does it, he says, in memory of his mother.
For all of his accomplishments, Tom is reluctant to talk about himself. So when Tom was first gathering friends around for his grassroots campaign, he explained why he is running by telling them about the inscription on the side of downtown�s Skidmore Fountain. Although the words were put there in 1888, Tom told everyone that they were still relevant today. And an inspiration for a man who wants to give back to the city he loves:
�Good citizens are the riches of a city.�
More About Tom:
Community Service
Portland Police Sunshine Division; Parents Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays; Shepherd Legal Scholarship Fund Committee; Portland Citizens Crime Commission; Multnomah County Commission on Children and Families; Driver, Meals On Wheels - Loaves and Fishes (Global Visions, ACLU, Jefferson High School mentoring program, Friends of Trees)
Education
Hosford Grade School
Cleveland High School
University of Portland
Hobbies
Archaeology
Hiking
Camping
Bicycling
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