Career in The Police Force
Potter began as a police officer in 1967 as a beat officer in southeast Portland in the Brooklyn and Sellwood neighborhoods. Although the neighborhoods are considered desirable residential locations today, at the time they were largely crime-ridden and threatened by gangs. According to Potter, early in his career a citizen in Sellwood asked him what he, as a citizen, could do to help the police. His sergeant informed him to tell the citizen to "stay inside and let the police do their jobs." The comment helped motivate Potter's early interest in making changes between the relationship of the police and the citizens.
In 1986, Potter was promoted to captain in the North Precinct. He was appointed police chief in 1990 by Mayor Bud Clark, heading up the 1,300 officers in the city's largest bureau. He served three years as chief before retiring at age 52 after 25 years of service in the police force. He served as interem director of the Oregon State Department of Safety and Standards and as the director of New Avenues for Youth, a service provider for homeless youth in Portland. He also consulted police bureaus around the country on the topics of community policing and strategic planning and was considered for the job of Top Cop in the Clinton Administration to head up their COPS Office. In 2003, he decided to run for mayor of Portland, based partly on a desire to help reform the Portland police department. He built a platform on the issue of community policing, a police strategy that involves active engagement with neighborhoods with such tactics as getting police officers out of their patrol cars.
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