A committee that hears citizen appeals of Portland police findings on officer misconduct complaints is seeking public support for a proposed change governing how it does its work.

The Citizen Review Committee is pressing to change the standard of review that its members must consider when evaluating whether to sustain a police bureau finding on alleged officer misconduct.

Currently, the committee must ask if the findings by an officer's supervisor was "reasonable'' or not.

The committee has found that standard confusing and frustrating, and instead wants to evaluate a finding by determining if there's a "preponderance of evidence'' to support it or not.

"Why have a bunch of community members there to consider how would a reasonable sergeant look at this? We're not there to be a reasonable sergeant,'' said committee chair Kristin Malone.

The 11-member committee of volunteers is sending its proposal to Portland community groups, and seeking feedback by June 1.

The committee then plans to vote on a proposed change at its June 6 meeting. The proposal would be sent to City Council for a vote. A council vote is required to change city code governing the committee.

Committee member Neil Simon is hoping the council adopts this change, which committee members have sought for several years.

"Any individual and any organization that cares about police oversight should care about strengthening the oversight tools that we already have,'' Simon said.

"The reasonableness standard on its face encourages committee members to err on the side of agreeing with police bureau leadership,'' Simon said.

The change would ensure the committee doesn't have to be "overly deferential'' to what a commanding officer ruled, he said.

The proposed change had been recommended by the committee numerous times in the past but was never adopted.

"It's been lost in a sea of recommendations. Other things were more pressing or more catchy,'' Malone said. "Hopefully this is a time we can get community support behind it.''

The Citizen Review Committee asks the public to send its comments to the committee at this email by 5 p.m. June 1: crc@portlandoregon.gov .

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian