Portland Police’s Rapid Response Team Disbands after Mass Walkout

All 50 members of Portland Police Bureau’s Rapid Response Team have stepped down after their colleague Corey Budworth’s indictment for his alleged assault of an activist in a riot on the 18th of August 2020.

According to the Portland Police Association, the August riot began outside of the Multnomah Building, a local governmental site, in South-Eastern Portland - marking the 75 consecutive night of violence. There were reportedly posts online calling for those attending to bring firearms along with other weapons. 

The crowd outside the Multnomah building numbered around 200, many of whom were well equipped with helmets, face coverings and weapons. They began setting fire to dumpsters, damaging buildings and breaking windows. One of the rioters threw a Molotov cocktail into the building which set it ablaze.  

A number of riot police dispersed the crowd away from the Multnomah Building so that the Fire Bureau could extinguish the growing fire. However, the crowd returned to the building once more. In the resulting chaos, Officer Budworth was pushed to the ground prompting the other officers to use pepper spray among other tactics to dispel the crowd.

One of the other officers sought to take one of the rioters into custody, but other rioters interfered with the arrest. Officers, including Budworth, began using their batons to clear the crowd from disrupting the arrest. As per his training, Budworth used a ‘baton push’ to move a rioter, later known to be Teri Jacobs, out of the area. As Budworth cleared her out of the area she fell over. Budworth, believing she was going to get up and resume interfering in the arrest, sought to provide one last baton push to ensure she remained on the ground. However, he accidentally struck Jacobs in the head. 

Budworth baton push was described by the Portland Police Association as the lowest level of baton force used by officers, as opposed to a strike or a jab. The association maintains that “Officer Budworth did exactly as he was trained.”

The recent Multnomah County Grand Jury decision to charge Budworth with a misdemeanour assault charge for the incident was met with heavy criticism from Portland’s police. The Portland Police Association said of the ruling:

“It is important to remember that our officer has not been found guilty of any crime. Like every citizen, our officer is innocent until proven guilty.

“It is also important to know that Officer Corey Budworth is a committed public servant of the highest integrity. He has spent four of his six years as a PPB officer as a highly trained member of PPB’s Rapid Response Team (RRT). In his service with RRT and his deployment at hundreds of protests and demonstrations, Officer Budworth has never faced any sustained force complaints.” 

The Association describes the officer as having been “caught in the crossfire of agenda-driven city leaders and a politicized criminal justice system.”

The Portland Police Bureau released a statement concerning the disbanding of the Rapid Response Team:

“On June 16, 2021, Portland Police Bureau employees serving as members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) left their voluntary positions and no longer comprise a team. Its members were sworn employees of the Portland Police who served on RRT in addition to their daily assignment in the Bureau. Despite no longer serving on RRT, they will continue in their regular assignments. There were approximately 50 employees serving as RRT members.”

“The Rapid Response Team is an all-hazard incident response team that has received advanced specialized training to respond to incidents requiring higher levels of technical expertise including public order policing, natural or man-made disasters. The primary role has been to provide public safety at crowd events when there was a threat of harm to the community. All Rapid Response Team members are trained in advanced skills related to crowd management and crowd control including crowd psychology and behavior, team formations and movements, the use of enhanced personal protective equipment, use of force, de-escalation and arrests.”