06/20/2009

Associated Press

The Boardman City Council is taking a second look at the performance of its police department after another round of complaints surfaced.

The East Oregonian newspaper in Pendleton reported the Boardman council sent out a survey about a year ago in response to complaints and the results indicated that officers were doing a good job.

At a city council meeting this week, Robert Hancock, co-owner of Hancock Sandblast and Paint, claimed that many of his contract workers choose to spend the night in nearby Hermiston rather than Boardman because they believe Boardman police are overzealous.

"They feel like the police force is fishing for DUIIs," Hancock said. "That's the first thing they ask everyone, 'Have you been drinking?'"

Hancock said that in 2006, his company spent $21,000 at the Econolodge in Boardman, but spent only $949 last year.

Hancock said he felt compelled to speak up for other businesses in town and for Boardman's economy.

Councilor Christie Perry said she also had heard some complaints.

"I am concerned about an attitude that is pervasive about how our police department is approaching people," she said. "It's an issue that we need to take a serious look at."

The city council formed an advisory committee a year ago to respond to complaints about the police department. They sent out a survey and rode along with officers before concluding police were generally doing a good job.

But some of the surveys that were returned offered complaints such claims that officers followed vehicles too closely and wrote too many tickets.

Similar complaints are resurfacing now.

Sgt. Frank Rivera, the Boardman police spokesman, said police officers are typically the most visible city employees in a small town, making them a natural target for complaints.

Rivera said one officer has been disciplined in the last year for treating a citizen in an unacceptable way.

But he said he was unable to disclose how many people have complained to the police department in recent months because the police chief, John Zeiler, is consulting the department's attorney before releasing any list.

One of the few people who have filed a written complaint, Martin Montes de Oca, said he has translated at least five complaints for others in Boardman's Hispanic community.

Montes de Oca said he was driving on Main Street last January with his 10-year-old son, Kristian, when they were stopped by a Boardman police officer waving a flashlight.

The officer, Shane Brandon, was directing traffic around a broken-down semi truck in the roadway.

Montes de Oca said he stopped and waited for his turn to pass. When Brandon waved the flashlight a second time, he said he assumed he was free to go and began to drive.

"He came over and just started yelling at me and saying, you better watch what you're doing and pay attention," Montes de Oca said. "And I said, don't yell at me."

Montes de Oca and Brandon argued a little more, he recalled, and then Brandon said, "That's it — you're getting a ticket. Go park over by my patrol car."

Montes de Oca said Brandon made him wait until the truck was up and running — about 30 minutes — before he cited him for disobeying a police officer.

The ticket was dismissed as invalid because Brandon accidentally wrote the wrong date, but Montes de Oca said the memory still stings.

"How did I disobey him? In my letter I wrote that I speak English, Spanish and some Portuguese, but I don't speak flashlight," he said.

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Information from: East Oregonian, http://www.eastoregonian.info