Nearly two years after she was cited for jaywalking outside a Portland police precinct, Kristin Bowling got her chance before City Council on Thursday to argue that the police cited her in retaliation for exercising her legal right to take photos of officers.

The volunteer-member Citizen Review Committee, which hears community appeals of Police Bureau findings on alleged misconduct complaints, supports Bowling’s complaint.

Police Chief Danielle Outlaw does not.

It’s now up to the City Council to break the impasse and determine whether the chief’s finding of “not sustained’’ was supported by the evidence in the record or should be overturned.

Bowling was met with markedly different questioning from the three council members present for Thursday’s hearing.

While Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Jo Ann Hardesty questioned the police action against Bowling, Mayor Ted Wheeler cued in on Bowling’s wide-ranging address to the council and her general concerns regarding policing in the city.

After two years of challenging her citation, Bowling said, she’s “not terribly optimistic’’ she’ll gain council support, doubts the Police Bureau is capable of changing its culture and urged the council not to allow police to investigate themselves and to reduce the Police Bureau’s power and budget.

Bowling said she feels privileged as a middle-aged white woman, yet is concerned about the number of black people and those suffering from mental illness who are killed by officers.

“You characterized police as murderers?’’ the mayor asked, and then pressed Bowling if that’s what she really believes.

Bowling said yes, adding, "I’m alarmed by the number of people killed by police.’’

“We have a complainant who actually believes police were murderers,’’ Wheeler continued.

Wheeler, who also serves as police commissioner, then cited all the reasons why he supports the bureau’s and chief’s findings. The officer had noted there had been recent vandalism of police cars outside North Precinct, where the encounter with Bowling occurred. A judge had found the jaywalking citation lawful, which Bowling is also appealing. The officer involved said he wasn’t retaliating, Wheeler noted. And, a police commander, the chief, the director of the Independent Police Review - the intake center for complaints against police - all found the allegation couldn’t be sustained, he said.

“I’m struggling to figure out how you could make this leap?’’ Wheeler asked.

Kristin Malone, chairwoman of the Citizen Review Committee, urged the mayor to consider the record before him, particularly the officer’s own statements to investigators, which she read aloud. The citizen committee had voted 8-1 to sustain the retaliation complaint.

Bowling said she crossed Northeast Emerson Street while taking photos of armored vehicles entering the precinct parking lot about 5:15 p.m. on May 15, 2017, across from the Blazers Boys & Girls Club. She said she was concerned by the demonstration of police power as parents were picking up children from the club.

Officer Neil Parker told investigators that as he was driving the Special Emergency Reaction Team’s armored truck, known as the Bear, into the precinct’s lot, he noticed a woman on Northeast Sixth Avenue who seemed very interested in the truck.

"She had a lot of disgust on her face, pulled out her phone and started following us down Sixth and onto NE Emerson. I watched in the passenger side mirror as the female walked out into Emerson Street to take photos or video of us,'' Parker told investigators, according to a summary report.

Citing a concern about a spike in police ambushes and vandalism to police property and cars, the officer said he decided to identify the woman and cite her for being in the road.

“It’s just one of those, you know, she had made it so overt to me,’’ Parker said. “It caught my attention enough, you know…I don’t care about people recording me but something about this whole event had spurred me on to at least want to go talk to her. And so, I was going to write her a citation for the improper placement on the highway.’’

Because Parker wasn't in his standard police uniform, Lt. Leo Besner approached the woman and, according to Parker, told her that she'd be subject to arrest if she didn't identify herself for the purpose of a citation. Parker said the woman wouldn't get out of the road and wouldn't provide her name, and so he and Besner grabbed hold of her arms to bring her to the sidewalk.

Once there, she presented her ID and police cited her for "improper placement on a highway."

“It was very clear to me the jaywalking ticket was a pretext to get all this information about me ... and to scare the hell out of me, so I wouldn’t do this again,’’ Bowling told the council.

Malone told the council that Parker “thoroughly described his thought process and his motivations…he was not on traffic duty.’’ He even indicated that citing a person whom he simply wanted to identify was a good example of community policing, Malone said.

“That’s a dangerous precedent,’’ Malone said. “The evidence all seemed to point decisively in the direction we found.’’

The committee found the officer ticketed Bowling because she had been taking photos of police and appeared to be disdainful of the police tactical unit and its truck.

Malone said it appeared the mayor was familiar with the record in the case but was quoting from it "selectively.''

The Police Bureau’s directive prohibiting retaliation prohibits using a citation for conduct, in fact, even if it is unlawful, if the citation was issued with a retaliatory motive, Malone said.

Bowling challenged the $115 citation, and a judge reduced it to $85, which she’s appealing.

Fritz asked, “Is it routine that the way to start a conversation is to issue a citation?’’

"This is a very weird way to have a conversation,'' Hardesty added.

“We were alarmed that his first thought was not simply to have a conversation,’’ Malone said.

Outlaw said she takes such allegations very seriously. But in this case, she said she determined there wasn’t enough evidence to find a violation of the retaliation policy.

Because Fritz hadn’t had a chance to review the case’s full record, the council delayed action on the matter for two weeks, until 3 p.m. on May 16. To overturn the bureau’s finding, a majority vote of council members is needed.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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