Mike Marshman was supposed to be on vacation last Wednesday but came in on his day off to attend a meeting on the status of Police Bureau reforms required under a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
After that meeting in Mayor Charlie Hales' office wrapped up, Hales had Marshman stay. That's when Hales asked Marshman to serve as the city's next police chief. Marshman got the impression that the mayor was negotiating O'Dea's retirement, but didn't ask too many questions.
Marshman, 50, a 25-year bureau veteran who this year reached retirement age, told the mayor he was honored but needed to think about it.
"When you're asked to lead the police bureau in this time in policing history, it's just a big, big job,'' Marshman said. He thought of the major challenges the bureau faces: adopting wide-ranging reforms, a staffing shortage, difficulty attracting new recruits, the community's lack of trust.
"I didn't want to have a knee-jerk reaction. I wanted to give it some consideration, and frankly, consider, 'Am I up to the job? Can I tackle this? Am I able and willing to give it 110 percent?''' Marshman recalled.
He returned to his Scappoose home and discussed it with his wife, Shea Marshman, a criminal justice research scientist who has previously worked for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office as a planning and research director. By the next morning, he told the mayor yes.
As Mayor Charlie Hales announced Chief Larry O'Dea's retirement Monday morning and introduced Marshman as the new chief at City Hall, O'Dea came back to the Police Bureau's headquarters in downtown Portland to clear out of his office on the 15th floor. O'Dea had been on paid leave since May 24, shortly after his public revelation that he shot a friend by accident in April during an eastern Oregon camping trip. He faces separate criminal and internal investigations.
In a whirlwind first day as chief, Marshman took the oath of office at 10:57 a.m., removed his captain's badge for the chief's badge that the mayor pinned on his uniform, addressed two Central Precinct roll calls of officers at noon and 4 p.m. and completed a sweeping shakeup of the bureau's command staff - involving every one of the top 16 management posts.
Marshman said it was his decision, not the mayor's directive, to remove the existing assistant chiefs who each face an administrative investigation looking into why they didn't call for an internal review of O'Dea's off-duty shooting after he told them about it in late April.
Marshman called the uncertainty over O'Dea's future and outcome of the criminal and administrative investigations "very detrimental'' to the bureau. He said it wasn't good for officers to be questioning what was going to happen to their leaders.
"I believe we needed to have a reset, kind of restart the engine and move forward and send a new message,'' Marshman said.
He also decided to get rid of the fourth assistant chief's job, which was added under O'Dea to oversee the bureau's community outreach work.
"I didn't want that work siloed off in any one place,'' Marshman said. "I want that work embedded everywhere in the bureau. Community engagement - that needs to be a core competency in every part of the bureau.''
Going from four assistant chiefs to three, "it starts a kind of domino effect,'' Marshman said. Beyond that, Marshman spent the rest of his staycation last week and into the weekend working to figure out where police supervisors' strengths can be used most effectively.
"It's just not a small move,'' Marshman told officers at the roll calls. "I believe in the people and where I put them.''
***
Chief Mike Marshman Bio:
Born
: New Jersey, moved to Chicago suburb in 1st grade
Education
: Bachelor of science degree, Portland State University, 1987
Law enforcement career
: Hired by San Diego Police after college graduation. Worked there for two years before Portland police hired him April 25, 1991.
Promotions
: To sergeant on Sept. 23, 2004; lieutenant on Dec. 9, 2009; captain, on Oct. 10, 2013.
Other
: Taken two trips to Bangladesh with Portland police to teach community policing.
Family
: Lives with wife Shea Marshman, a criminal justice research scientist, in Scappoose.
Hobbies
: Spends free time building wood and metal furniture from salvaged materials. He said he picked up that hobby from his dad, who was a cabinet maker and enjoyed woodworking.
Marshman developed a sense of community service from his parents and older brothers. His father was a World War II veteran. His mother worked as a nurse. His older brother is a retired FBI agent; his middle brother, a former F-16 pilot in the Air Force.
He was born in Fanwood, N.J., about 15 miles southwest of Newark. But his family moved to a Chicago suburb when he was in first grade. He grew up there, and attended Arizona State University for two years. There, one of his professors was a former law enforcement officer and suggested Marshman take a criminal justice course, although Marshman's strengths were math and physics, he said.
Marshman ended up transferring to Portland State University and earned a bachelor of science degree in 1987. He said he fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and applied for an entry-level police officer's job in both Portland and San Diego.
"San Diego finished their hiring process faster,'' Marshman noted, adding dryly, "which I hear is still an issue today.'' Portland police have consistently lost potential recruits to other police agencies, which have a quicker turnaround time.
He worked two years as a San Diego officer before he returned to Portland, hired by the bureau here in April 1991. He met his current wife, his second marriage, while they were both taking graduate courses at Portland State University.
***
As he rose through the ranks and took several police executive courses, Marshman began to follow the writings of Yale University law and psychology professor Tom R. Tyler. Marshman described Tyler as one of the "pre-eminent scholars on police legitimacy.''
To Tyler, the success of a police department depends directly on whether the community supports the local force. To gain the public's trust and confidence, police must convince people that they're honest, strive to do their jobs fairly, appropriately and morally and are truly working for the public's safety.
Police can help achieve that by giving residents a voice and treating everyone they encounter with respect and care. If that happens, people will be more willing to accept laws and police authority. The agency then gains what Tyler calls "legitimacy.''
Tyler says the same concept applies to the culture within the bureau - if officers feel they're treated fairly by their supervisors, they're more likely to follow department rules.
"I think the officers in the police agency need to understand that to a fairly high degree - just what it means to deliver good service,'' Marshman said.
***
Marshman, tall and thin with a low-key style, addressed the roll calls because he said he wanted to make connections with the bureau's rank-and-file. The police union endorsed Marshman within an hour of his appointment.
Marshman reiterated his commitment to reforms imposed by the federal government after it found in 2012 that Portland police used excessive force against people with mental illness. He promised "renewed focus'' and "renewed energy'' by the police command staff from him on down.
"We do have a vision again,'' he told them. He shared his goals for the bureau: restoring public trust, reinforcing "legitimacy" within the bureau and complying with required policy and training reforms. "We're on track. We'll be fine.''
Marshman late Monday was still working out of his office in the bureau's strategic services division, where he's served for the past 2 1/2 years as the bureau's liaison to the U.S. Department of Justice, responsible for carrying out the required changes, including a more restrictive stun gun policy and a better accounting and oversight of officers' use of force.
He continues to grapple with how to share the gravity of the federal mandates with every part of the Police Bureau even though each reform doesn't necessarily touch each division the same. "I think we're doing well. We know where we're at. We know where we want to go," he said. "The implementation piece is the hard part. It's so process heavy right now.''
He's not ready to eliminate police specialty divisions like the elder abuse unit or street crimes unit to put more officers on the street as the acting chief was moving to do. Marshman said he'll conduct "more detailed, data-driven'' analyses and have conversations with outside agencies before he makes any such reductions.
Moments before he headed home about 6 p.m. after seven hours as chief, Marshman said, "I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep and coming back tomorrow and starting again. I want to invigorate the folks who work here and help the bureau move forward. I know that may sound trite, but I really mean it.''
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian