Aaron Campbell and Portland's Use-of-Force Record

On January twenty-ninth, twenty ten, Portland police responded to a call in a Northeast Portland apartment complex. Aaron Campbell, twenty-five years old, was in the building. His brother had died the previous day, and Campbell was in crisis. Family members had called the police asking for help.

What followed is documented in the official police report, grand jury testimony, and subsequent Department of Justice investigations. Officers established contact outside the apartment. When Campbell came out, his hands were raised. An officer deployed a beanbag shotgun round, striking him in the back. Campbell fell. Another officer then fatally shot him. Aaron Campbell was unarmed. His hands were above his head when the beanbag round hit him.

A Multnomah County grand jury declined to indict any of the officers involved.

The Portland Police Bureau's use-of-force record became the subject of a formal Department of Justice investigation that documented a pattern of excessive force, particularly in encounters with people experiencing mental health crises and with Black Portlanders. A consent agreement followed, placing the bureau under federal oversight and requiring reforms to its mental health response protocols.

The Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, a community organization rooted in the historically Black Northeast Portland neighborhood, has tracked and published data on use-of-force incidents in Portland for years. Their documentation of the pattern that produced the Campbell killing predates the Department of Justice investigation.

The exact details of what happened to Aaron Campbell on that morning in twenty ten are in the public record. The record of how similar incidents were handled before and after that morning is also in the public record. What changed and what did not change is a question that community organizations in Portland have continued to ask.