Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and Mayor Ted Wheeler announced Thursday that the bureau’s former crowd control liaison was doing his job when he exchanged friendly texts with Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson to gather protest information.

Portland’s Independent Police Review, a city auditing division that handles investigations of high-ranking police administrators, didn’t find sufficient evidence to prove allegations against Lt. Jeff Niiya after reviewing 11,647 of Niiya’s cellphone text messages between May 2017 and February 2019.

Investigators examined three allegations: that Niiya engaged in unprofessional behavior during his communications with Gibson, didn’t maintain objectivity while communicating with Gibson and inappropriately disclosed information to Gibson to allow people to avoid arrest.

The chief ruled all allegations "unfounded.''

"There was no evidence to prove any of the allegations considered,'' Outlaw said at a news conference with the mayor as uniformed officers, including some command staff and internal affairs supervisors, stood behind them.

At the same time, the chief also announced changes to the police crowd control liaison program, including new training, uniforms and operating procedures.

The city investigation found that officers who worked as liaisons hadn’t received any formal training and had no written standards for how to do their job.

"Simply put, Lt. Niiya was left to figure it out on his own,'' the investigative report said. "As a result, Lt. Niiya has faced personal criticism, and damage to his professional reputation, in large part because the Police Bureau failed to clearly describe Lt. Niiya’s job to him and failed to provide him training on how he should do it.''

The liaisons, charged with reaching out to organizers of demonstrations ahead of time to help the bureau prepare, are now assigned to the crisis negotiation team, with a more formalized structure in place. They were sent to training in Canada in June and a new standard operating procedure was drafted to govern their work and ensure their communications with demonstrators are examined by supervisors, Outlaw said.

At the last big downtown demonstration in August, the liaison officers also wore a different uniform - white shirts and police vests so protesters could easily identity them.

The investigation followed the disclosure in February of hundreds of text messages between Niiya and Gibson. They showed Niiya sometimes telling Gibson about the movements of counterprotesters, telling Gibson if officers would be on foot or bike at protests, even warning Gibson about an arrest warrant for one of his devoted followers.

The communications sparked outrage among some community members, who said the lieutenant’s banter with Gibson was evidence that officers have protected right-wing protesters and targeted leftist opponents. City Commissioners JoAnn Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly blasted the texts. The mayor called the texts “disturbing’’ and said they crossed the boundaries of acceptable police work.

Wheeler, when questioned at the news conference, said he’s told Niiya : “In retrospect, I wish I would have been more overt about giving you the benefit of the doubt.”

Gibson, who lives in the Vancouver area, has led a series of protests in downtown in the past two years to promote a variety of conservative causes, including condemning Portland’s anti-fascists. Many have led to brawls with counterprotesters. He now faces felony riot charges with several other followers of his group in a confrontation with antifa supporters earlier this year at a local pub.

The chief said the initial coverage of the texting by Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury in response to public records requests for a narrow group of messages Niiya exchanged with Gibson lacked important context about the scope of Niiya’s job.

Chief Danielle Outlaw's letter to the captain of Portland Police Bureau's Professional Standards Division, with her findings.Portland Police Bureau

The investigation found Niiya’s role required open communication with protesters and that it’s not uncommon for police to engage in banter with people to try to get information. As he did with Gibson, Niiya contacted or tried to have similar contact with people from multiple political spectrums, the report found.

But when Niiya’s contacts with one left-leaning demonstrator, June Davies, became public in December 2017 and critics accused Davies of being a police informant, Niiya worried that his ability to gain information from left-wing demonstrators had been significantly harmed. He said the outing of Davies put a "shock stop'' to his communication with many other leftist protesters. He asked his supervisors whether he could still be effective in his role. He was told he could, so he continued, according to the investigation.

Niiya also shared information he learned about Patriot Prayer with senior command staff and the mayor’s senior adviser, text messages showed. At one point, Niiya attended a meeting that the mayor wanted to have with Gibson to try to discourage Gibson from attending protests downtown on June 4, 2017, the investigation showed. After that meeting, Niiya told investigators, Wheeler "seemed impressed'' by how much information he was getting from Gibson.

The investigation also revealed that outside agencies often came to Niiya for information on upcoming protests, including the Washington State Patrol, the FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice’s Titan Fusion Center.

Investigators asked Niiya why he twice advised Gibson before a Dec. 9, 2017, protest that Tusitala John “Tiny” Toese, a member of the Proud Boys, had a disorderly conduct warrant in Portland. Niiya in the texts had suggested to Gibson that the warrant be taken care of before Toese came to the city. Niiya also told Gibson that officers could arrest Toese if he acted out but it wasn’t likely to occur.

Niiya, backed by senior command staff, told investigators that by sharing the warrant information he was hoping to “influence” Toese to not come to the Portland protest. Niiya said he also was hoping to avoid causing a potential safety issue by arresting Toese in the middle of a chaotic protest. Warrant information is also public, the report noted.

Regarding a video from a June 3, 2018, protest, where Sgt. Kevin Allen warned Patriot Prayer protesters to leave because police had probable cause to arrest Toese, Niiya said that also was done to convince the group to disperse. Police weren’t making arrests then because detectives had no named victims at the time and wanted to do further investigation, he said.

Niiya also gave investigators examples when police didn’t immediately arrest left-leaning protesters, such as Luis Martinez, although police had information that Martinez during the June 3, 2018, demonstration had stolen a camera from a right-wing protester, according to the report.

Asked about the friendly tone of his text messages with Gibson, Niiya told investigators, "I understand how this looks and how the context of this sounds, but you don’t get cooperation by, bluntly, being an asshole to people, right. And whether it’s the left or the right ... respect is something that you have to be given, and so I respect these folks. I mean, they’re - whether it’s the left or right, I respect what they’re doing. I respect that they’re willing to come out and put themselves out in a public form like this. So, are they friendly? Sure. Do I condone the actions of the group? Absolutely not.''

Assistant Chief Ryan Lee, the bureau’s crowd control expert, said the idea of having a liaison developed from a method in Sweden called "dialogue policing.''

“That regardless of the ideology, whether you may personally find it repugnant, that having a dialogue with somebody so that you understand their intent, their action, you can communicate consequences to behavior to help try and facilitate lawful expression, that that is a more advantageous route,'' Lee told investigators.

Lee conceded that Niiya wrote a text that was problematic because it could be misinterpreted: Before the June 4, 2017, protest, Niiya asked right-wing Oathkeeper Brian Krogmann, a retired law enforcement officer, to send pictures of those who would be armed, noting “I don’t want a blue on blue issue.’’ Lee said it wasn’t the best choice of words but likely texted as shorthand and to build rapport.

Police union leaders had criticized the mayor’s office for condemning the lieutenant’s actions before an inquiry started.

Lt. Craig Morgan, president of the Portland Police Commanding Officers Association that represents Niiya, said Thursday that the inquiry "confirmed what we knew to be true from the start. Lt. Niiya was performing the key duty of his job, keeping the Portland community safe, and did absolutely nothing wrong. This process highlights the point we made from the very beginning – that a rush to judgment based on preliminary information should be avoided, and that a full look at the case would lead to the result we saw today.''

Independent Police Review investigators Eric Berry and Andrea Damewood, who had previously been a Willamette Week reporter, is Portland Mercury’s restaurant critic and now works with Multnomah County, conducted the inquiry and forwarded their 36-page report and recommended findings to the Police Bureau.

But because there was a dispute -- Capt. Mike Leasure, who supervised Niiya, agreed with the investigators’ findings, while Assistant Chief Chris Davis recommended "exonerated'' instead of “unsustained'' findings -- the matter went to the bureau’s Police Review Board, made up officers and citizen members. The board, which makes recommendations to the chief, proposed ”exonerated'' for the first two allegations and "not sustained'' for the third allegation.

Outlaw said she found the "allegations devoid of fact,'' and ruled all three unfounded.

The Independent Police Review investigators examined the allegations against Niiya in regard to Portland police directives governing officers’ professional conduct and courtesy, satisfactory performance and dissemination of information, as well as city human resources administrative rules on ethical conduct.

The Police Bureau’s policy on crowd control directs officers to “make reasonable efforts to contact and engage in dialogue with known event or demonstration organizers.” That’s done to plan and to “develop a shared understanding of the organizers’ needs and objectives,’’ according to the policy. The bureau also should communicate its expectations and tell participants what’s allowed or restricted during a protest, it says. Officers who are liaisons are encouraged to maintain contact with organizers before and during the events and to interact with crowds in non-confrontational ways, the policy advises.

Niiya, who joined the bureau in 1996, was removed from his crowd control liaison job in February as the investigation began. He had served as the bureau’s liaison with demonstrators since protests outside Schumacher Furs in 2005, and more formally, since Occupy Portland in 2011.

In April, he was reassigned to serve as an inspector in the bureau’s Professional Standards Division. He reviews after-action reports to ensure police are following directives and the city’s settlement agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. The 2014 agreement followed federal findings that Portland officers were using excessive force against people with mental illness.

Niiya, in a statement released Thursday afternoon, said he appreciated the thoroughness of the investigation and the chief’s findings.

"I wish to thank everyone who supported me through this investigation,'' he said. "With this finally behind me, I look forward to continuing to serve the Police Bureau and the people of Portland.''

Gibson stood in the lobby of the Police Bureau holding an American flag after he wasn’t allowed to attend the news conference. He said the mayor should have known that Niiya was trying to communicate with protesters from all political vantage points. "I’m glad for once, he came out and told the truth,'' Gibson said of Wheeler.

Eric Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, said the Independent Police Review investigation "revealed a false equivalency that treated far-right paramilitaries on par with counter-protesters'' and that Niiya’s text messages "strained the community faith in public safety and law enforcement.'' The Western States Center is a social justice group that monitors right-wing extremism from its base in Portland.

“We trust that the Police Bureau is committed to making the changes that will help prevent future incidents and better hold public officers accountable to the communities they serve,'' Ward said.

In May, the mayor selected the National Police Foundation to investigate whether Portland police have acted with bias before and during demonstrations involving right-wing and anti-fascist protesters. Wheeler, after consulting with former FBI agent Michael German, picked the foundation for a $200,000 contract to do the independent inquiry. The money comes from the Police Bureau’s budget. The investigation just recently started.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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