Visiting voters led to a visit from police for Janelle Bynum, a black lawmaker from Oregon

Joel Shannon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Cops called on black lawmaker while she was canvassing Janelle Bynum, an Oregon state representative, was going door-to-door talking to constituents when a suspicious neighbor called the police on her.

Janelle Bynum, a state representative from Oregon who is black, said she was going door-to-door to talk with constituents when one of those constituents called the police on her, thinking her actions were "suspicious."

Bynum is running for reelection in November, and posted about the experience to Facebook on Tuesday.

"Big shout out to Officer Campbell who responded professionally to someone who said that I was going door to door and spending a lot of time typing on my cell phone after each house—- aka canvassing and keeping account of what my community cares about!" she wrote.

The incident happened around 5:10 p.m. Tuesday, OregonLive reports.

She had visited about 75 houses, Bynum told USA TODAY.

Her reaction when she saw the deputy pull up: "I don't believe this," the publication reports.

She learned through speaking with the deputy that a woman had called police thinking Bynum was casing the neighborhood.

The incident ended in an apology from the concerned resident and a selfie featuring Bynum and the responding officer — both all smiles.

Bynum told OregonLive that she did not know the race of the caller or where the woman lived, but was able to speak with the person on the phone. The woman said she called police out of concern for her neighborhood.

Bynum told the publication that she understood the concern, but wished the resident would have spoken with her directly or through a neighbor, instead of going directly to police.

"When people do things like this, it can be dangerous for people like me," she recalled telling the responding officer.

Portland, Oregon, City Council candidate Loretta Smith, who is friends with Bynum, connected Bynum's experience with a recent incident at Portland State University.

In that incident, police shot and killed Jason Washington, a legally armed black man who witnesses say was trying to break up a fight near the college campus.

"This coming on the heels of the shooting of Jason Washington, I think it’s ‘here we go again,'" Smith said. "We’re wracked by these racial injustices in our backyard. I know Oregon can do better. I know Portland can do better.”

National outrage has been sparked multiple times in recent weeks over examples of police intervention in non-violent incidents involving minorities — particularly children.

In late June, a neighbor called the cops on a 12-year-old and his summer grass-cutting crew in a Cleveland suburb.

Around the same date, a white woman went viral for appearing to call the police on an 8-year-old black girl selling water without a permit in California.

"We all know that we're not in a society that is perfect, and we have wounds that still need to heal, but at the end of the day, I want to know my kids can walk down the street without fear," Bynum told OregonLive.

Contributing: Sara Roth and John Tierney, KGW-TV