A Portland woman complained that police retaliated against her by citing her for jaywalking last year after she crossed a street to take cellphone photos of the bureau's armored trucks pulling into North Precinct.

Eight of nine members on the city's Citizen Review Committee agreed after reviewing police investigative reports and hearing directly from the woman cited. The committee hears appeals of police findings on citizen complaints.

But Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw disagreed, upholding the bureau's finding that the retaliation complaint couldn't be substantiated.

"It's too ambiguous to prove or disprove either way,'' the chief told the committee Wednesday night. She suggested more officer training to avoid similar confrontations.

Now, the City Council will decide in one of the rare appeals of a police finding to be passed to the mayor and other council members for review. No date yet has been set for the council's consideration.

Kristin Bowling, 47, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she's glad the citizen committee supported her complaint.

"I'm really pleased because the retaliation was at the heart of the whole incident,'' she said.

Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw addresses members of the city's Citizen Review Committee Wednesday night at City Hall.

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.

Bowling believes she was stopped for exercising her legal right to photograph the police, she said. She was threatened repeatedly with arrest if she didn't provide an officer her name and then was cited for jaywalking, she said.

"Their approach that day was to identify me to intimidate me from taking those photos,'' she said.

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

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.

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."

Members of the Citizen Review Committee said Parker's own explanation suggested he was retaliating against the woman for taking photos of police.

"He wanted to find out her ID because she was taking a picture. He approached her because she was exercising her First Amendment rights,'' said committee member Andrea Chiller.

Kristin Malone, the committee chair, said she was bothered that the officer made it clear he wanted to find out who the woman was because she was taking photos of police and their tactical truck.

Eric Terrell, who served as an advocate for Bowling at the committee meeting, said he appreciated the discussion that her complaint provoked but he was disheartened by the chief's decision to uphold the bureau's "unsustained" ruling.

"Retaliation is both perceived and felt. You feel it in your gut,'' he said. "If this matter is upheld, you may win the battle, but you lose the war in terms of the community having trust in officers.''

While the police chief said she couldn't sustain the retaliation complaint, she noted that the encounter pointed to a larger, systemic problem that should be addressed by providing additional training for officers on how to avoid such confrontations and complaints.

Outlaw suggested the bureau could offer the training during annual in-service refresher courses or roll-calls and perhaps use Bowling's experience as a case study to ensure officers clearly communicate their intent and are mindful about how their language affects others.

The last citizen's appeal of a police complaint to go before the City Council occurred in February 2017.

The council overturned the bureau's exoneration of a police officer who used a Taser on a bicyclist six times within 15 seconds, but it didn't recommend any discipline.

The council's decision came after a years-long process in which the citizen review panel and the bureau tried and failed to come to an agreement on the findings. That review marked the first appeal brought before the council in more than a decade.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian