Word: portland
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Penny Harrington became the first woman police chief in a big U.S. city the hard way: besides proving her abilities as an effective officer, she filed some 40 sex-discrimination complaints against Portland's police bureau, consistently winning them to keep rising in the ranks. Since her appointment to chief in January 1985, Harrington, 44, has discovered that running the city's 760-member force has been just as much of a struggle as her 21-year climb...
...Penny Harrington, turmoil is not unusual. She had been in office only a month when a city budget crisis forced her to fire 16 police officers and leave 60 vacancies unfilled, outraging the force. Ordered by Mayor Bud Clark to give priority to cutting Portland's high burglary rate, which topped the nation's three years running, Harrington created a juvenile division that worked to prevent truancy, thus reducing daytime burglaries. But to pay for it she eliminated the vice and drug division, giving its duties to already overworked detectives and precinct officers. Critics charged that this...
Through no fault of Harrington's, Portland's criminals are often returned to the streets soon after conviction because the city's jails are too full to house them. For four years in a row Portland voters have refused to approve funds for more cells. Due to overcrowding, some 7,500 offenders were given citations last year instead of jail sentences. "It's insane," protested Harrington. "We're recycling the same criminals over and over again...
...January, getting a rise out of Oregonians who love the bread's light, crispy texture. The 1939 bread law was written to protect consumers against "balloon bread" that had more air than dough. But doubling the weight of the 2-ft.-long baguette would mean doubling its size. Says Portland Baker Howard Minh Le: "Who is going to buy a 4-ft. baguette?" After receiving dozens of letters and calls from baguette boosters, authorities agreed to give the French bread a break. The loaves will be available at least until a hearing later this month...
...show of force in South Florida has resulted in much faster growth of the smuggling business at other border crossings and landing strips from San Diego to Portland, Me. Smugglers' jets equipped with long-range fuel tanks now bypass Florida's notorious narcs and land instead in South Carolina, Tennessee or even New York's Long Island, which puts the product only a few miles from Manhattan's penthouses and discos. The influx has prompted New York Governor Mario Cuomo to assign 200 more officers to drug-enforcement squads...