Hillsboro Police Department

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Hillsboro Police Department
Your Human Resource
Jurisdiction City of Hillsboro
Sworn 115[1]
Non-sworn 35
Stations 2 (plus 1 mobile)
Chief Lila Ashenbrenner
Website Hillsboro Police

The Hillsboro Police Department (HPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the city of Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. HPD is a nationally accredited agency with 155 sworn officers on the force. As of July 2007, the chief is Lila Ashenbrenner, the agency's first female leader in the city of over 85,000 residents west of Portland, Oregon in Washington County. With 150 employees as of 2006, the department is the largest police force in the county and sixth largest in Oregon.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

The Hillsboro Police Department grew to five employees in 1947, and expanded to 31 employees by 1976.[2] In 1980, officer Gerald H. Erickson became the only officer in the department to die in the line of duty.[3] The department hired Ron Louie as chief of police in 1992.[4] The department had grown to 53 sworn officers in 1994.[5]

In 1995, Hillsboro police partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Intel to start the Oregon High-Tech Crime Team to take on computer based crimes.[6] Intel would donate $100,000 for the program.[7] By 1999, the department had seven officers assigned to the team.[8] In 2003, the unit was dissolved after 93 arrests and the recovery of $208 million after private funding ended and a new FBI lab was opened.[9]

The department became the first police agency in Oregon to collect racial information from traffic stops in May 2000.[10][11] The information was collected to be used to train officers to not target minority groups.[10] Hillsboro PD exams the data monthly to analyze any numbers that appear disproportionate to Census data.[11] By 2001, the department offered increase pay for officers that could speak Spanish.[12] In 2006, police chief Ron Louie and one other officer were appointed to a six-person, state-wide task force to analyze racial profiling along with the American Civil Liberties Union’s top person in the state, and former Oregon Supreme Court justice Edwin J. Peterson.[13]

The department established a mediation program in 1997.[14] That program reached its goal of providing 32 hours of formal training for its entire workforce, becoming the first law enforcement agency in the United States accomplish this task.[14] HPD has documented that mediation can lead to reduced repeat calls to police from those involved in disputes.[15]

In December 2001, the department questioned the appropriateness of some of the questions in the United States Department of Justice’s anti-terrorism interviews that followed the September 11 attacks.[16] HPD became nationally accredited in 2004 by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.[17] In 2003, officer Lila Ashenbrenner became the first woman in the department with a command position.[18] At that time women made up 19% of the 106 officer force.[18] On July 2, 2007, Ashenbrenner would become the departments fist female chief of police when Louie retired.[4] Prior chiefs of police include M. E. DeRock (1947-77),[2] Herman Woll (1977-1991),[19] and Ron Louie (1992-2007).[4]

In 1997, a police dog on the force was shot and killed in the line of duty, and in 2007 Hondo Dog Park was built by the city and named in honor of the fallen canine.[20]

[edit] Operations

West Precinct
West Precinct

HPD operates two stations, a West Precinct located in downtown on 10th Street near the Washington/Southeast 12th Avenue MAX Station. The Tanasbourne Precinct is located in the Tanasbourne neighborhood on the city’s eastside.[21] Divisions include a traffic unit, detectives, emergency response team created in 1993, K-9 units, reserve units, crime prevention, and a Cyber Awareness Responsibility and Ethics unit among others.[22] The department utilizes both motorcycles and automobiles in their law enforcement activities.

The department employs non-lethal weapons such as a special launcher that fires paintball-like pepper balls to incapacitate suspects.[23] To reduce repeat calls for service, the department utilizes a mediation program that trains every member of the department.[14] The department also utilizes police cadets to perform tasks that may otherwise take up the time of full time officers, those include participating in community events, traffic details, officer ride-a-longs, and graffiti clean up.[24]

[edit] See also

Oregon Portal
Law enforcement/Law enforcement topics Portal


[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Table 78: Oregon: Full-time Law Enforcement Employees. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved on October 31, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Campbell, Rae Anne. Police Dept. operates on ideals. The Hillsboro Argus, October 19, 1976.
  3. ^ The one hundred fifty -two Oregon law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Statesman Journal, September 9, 2001.
  4. ^ a b c Eckert, Kurt. Chief goes out, Chief comes in Hillsboro Police Chief Ron Louie expects a seamless transition when he is replaced by Deputy Chief Lila Ashenbrenner as of July 2. The Hillsboro Argus, June 15, 2007.
  5. ^ Frank, Ryan. Hillsboro Police patrol job market for qualified officers. The Oregonian, June 8, 2000.
  6. ^ Baker, Isaac. FBI Asks Oregon Group to Join in the Fight Against Cyber Crime. The Oregonian, October 30, 2000.
  7. ^ Best force Intel can buy. The Australian, August 6, 1996.
  8. ^ Huffstutter, P.J. Tech firms pay police agencies to fight cyber crime; law enforcement: Intel funds sheriff’s unit that chases computer pirates. Some fear conflict of interest. Los Angeles Times, July 26, 1999.
  9. ^ Frank, Ryan. Hillsboro’s cybercrime unit breaks up. The Oregonian, November 3, 2003.
  10. ^ a b Steves, David. Oregon House Approves Bill to Study Police Stops for Racial Profiling. The Register Guard, April 13, 2001.
  11. ^ a b Bernstein, Maxine. Data on police traffic stops sit incomplete and unused. The Oregonian, May 9, 2004.
  12. ^ Greenblatt, Alan. Police officers primed en Espanol. Governing Magazine, April 2001.
  13. ^ The cast; Listening Post. Statesman Journal, February 19, 2006.
  14. ^ a b c RESOLUTION: Learning the skills. Oregon Lawyer, update 2007.
  15. ^ Cooper, Christopher. Training Patrol Officers to Mediate Disputes. The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, February 1, 2000.
  16. ^ Correction * A Sunday commentary article listed Hillsboro. The Oregonian, December 5, 2001.
  17. ^ CALEA: 2004 Annual Report. Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Retrieved on October 5, 2006.
  18. ^ a b Danks, Holly. Ever-watchful pioneer. The Oregonian, August 4, 2003.
  19. ^ Anderson, David R. Former Hillsboro police chief dies. The Oregonian, October 5, 2001.
  20. ^ Diehl, Angella Foret. New bark park has room to run. The Oregonian, September 14, 2007.
  21. ^ Hillsboro Police: Contact Us. City of Hillsboro. Retrieved on October 5, 2007.
  22. ^ Hillsboro Police: Departments. City of Hillsboro. Retrieved on October 5, 2007.
  23. ^ Frank, Ryan. Police add pepper guns to nonlethal arsenal. The Oregonian, January 22, 2002.
  24. ^ Police Cadet Brochure. City of Hillsboro. Retrieved on November 6, 2007.
Hillsboro Civic Center
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