Will Portland Police Cooperate With Trump’s Fbi?

by Courtney Vaughn

For years Portland Police Bureau has cooperated with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), but with a new federal administration intent on broadening the JTTF’s scope and power, city leaders are uneasy about PPB’s arrangement.

What seemed like a routine annual report to City Council sparked a broad discussion Wednesday about racism, immigration, surveillance, and federal overreach amid a new political regime that has spewed haunting rhetoric and shown fealty to fascism and far-right movements.

Councilors questioned Portland Police Chief Bob Day and Sgt. Mark Friedman about how closely PPB works with the FBI’s anti-terrorism task force and how frequently the two agencies collaborate. But more than anything, city leaders wanted to know: Would local police aid the FBI or carry out any federal directives that conflict with the city’s own codes, policies, or values? 

BIPOC councilors noted the fraught and painful history behind federal government initiatives couched as “national safety and security” efforts that often meant terror and displacement for communities of color.

Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane noted the significance of Wednesday’s February 19 date– the 83rd anniversary of executive order 9066, which authorized forced removal and mass incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living in the US.

Koyama Lane shared the history of her grandparents–both US citizens–being forced into internment camps when they were just teens in high school.

“This is an example of federal law enforcement weaponizing rhetoric and scapegoating to turn neighbors against each other,” the councilor said, noting the Alien Enemies Act paved the way for the WWII-era presidential order. She noted a “resurgence of calls to invoke the Alien Enemies Act” since Trump took office in January. 

“My family was surveilled, stripped of their home, livelihood, and dignity,” Koyama Lane told the police chief and sergeant. “So my question is, how can we work together to make sure that history like this isn’t repeated?”

Tiffany Koyama Lane gives remarks during a swearing-in ceremony in December 2024 before taking office as a Portland city councilor in January. Koyama Lane says her grandparents were sent to a Japanese internment camp during WWII. sean bascom

The latest annual report on PPB’s casework with JTTF triggered concern and inquiry not because of what was in it, but because of what wasn’t.

PPB’s report to Council was scant, which only served to escalate skepticism. The Bureau listed just three cases in which the FBI anti-terrorism task force called on PPB’s Criminal Intelligence Unit for assistance in 2024, including a case involving a woman in Portland who made “online interstate threats to an elected official.” PPB provided no details for the two other incidents, which are still active, open cases. The Bureau also declined to include meaningful information like suspect names or incident details for three cases it helped the FBI with in 2023 that have since been closed. Those cases also involved threats of online violence.

Councilors lamented the lack of transparency, noting the report was “vague with very limited details.” Councilor Steve Novick observed the Police Bureau’s report offered “nothing that explains why these cases were ever considered to involve terrorism,” noting “a great deal of concern that this administration will convert the FBI into a tool of political persecution.”

Sgt. Friedman said his office is limited in what details can be shared about the federal cases, but noted PPB only aids the JTTF in criminal investigations related to threats of violence, terrorism, and bias crimes.

Novick asked the sergeant and police chief bluntly, “If they came to you and asked for assistance in something that was obviously unsavory and smacked of political persecution, could you tell us about that? Could you come to us and say, ‘Hey, here’s what they’re trying to do’?”

“In this new world order that we’re facing, this new system, that’s probably something that we need to consider,” Chief Day replied.

"We’ve seen the FBI weaponized against communities of color, and particularly, well, I’ll just say people that look like me"—Councilor Sameer Kanal

Other concerns have surfaced over a misalignment in policies between local and federal police who might be working on the same case. While Portland has several norms and policies in place aimed at preventing racial profiling and strengthening police accountability, federal agencies do not.

For example, Portland is a sanctuary city that forbids local authorities from aiding in immigration enforcement. The city also bans the use of facial recognition technology. As Ethan Krow, an attorney with the ACLU of Oregon told the Council, the FBI isn’t subject to those restrictions, nor does it have to follow Oregon state statute that prohibits law enforcement from collecting or maintaining information about a person’s political, religious, or social views.

Krow was one of two attorneys who reminded councilors about the FBI’s history of illegally surveilling Portland protesters, and its history of Islamophobia.

“The FBI is being directed by a second Trump administration whose 2020 Department of Homeland Security collected and maintained baseball card-style dossiers on racial justice protesters in Portland, according to Sen. Ron Wyden,” Krow said Wednesday, noting the JTTF operates with “very limited” oversight. 

Brandon Mayfield, a Muslim attorney based in Lake Oswego, recounted an incident from nearly 20 years ago when he was arrested and detained for two weeks  without probable cause, for an alleged connection to a bombing in Madrid.

“They were watching my coming and going from the local Beaverton mosque,” Mayfield said of FBI agents.

Wednesday’s Council discussion underscored a seismic shift in local and national politics. Portland’s new 12-person City Council is the most diverse governing body the city’s ever had, leading one of America’s most liberal enclaves as the president and his cabinet roll out an authoritarian agenda. 

Portland police officials say it’s crucial for the Police Bureau to maintain a working relationship with other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

“I just cannot emphasize enough the importance of ongoing relationships and communication with our federal law enforcement partners,” Day told the Council, noting the open lines of communication help prevent acts of violence.

But with new city leadership, local police are less likely to encounter the “business as usual” level of examination they got from the previous City Council.

“We’ve seen the FBI weaponized against communities of color, and particularly, well, I’ll just say people that look like me,” said Sameer Kanal, a District 2 councilor and co-chair of the Public Safety Committee, reminding his colleagues of the racial profiling that became prominent during the Bush administration.

“I appreciate that the coordination with the JTTF was so minimal,” Kanal said. “I have concerns about local law enforcement collaborating with federal law enforcement. I think, like many of our colleagues here, given the federal context ushered in by the Trump administration.” 

New FBI Director Kash Patel’s confirmation has raised red flags for Congressional Democrats, as well as local leaders. Patel is a Trump loyalist who’s previously denigrated officials who investigated the president over his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots.

“I also would ask you to be judicious over the next few years,” Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney told Day and Friedman. “I hope that you are judicious as you look at the cases that come over the next few years, and that if we accept the ask to partner with JTTF, it truly rises to the level of threat to life, terrorism, and bias crime.”