A report brings to light the circumstances surrounding former St. Helens Police Chief Bran Greenway's abrupt departure from his position. (Courtesy of City of St. Helens)

Editor’s note: This story contains profane language that may not be suitable for all readers, but is included in order to provide an accurate representation of the events described.

A damning 108-page report chronicling interviews with St. Helens police officers and city officials has brought to light the circumstances surrounding former Chief Brian Greenway’s sudden departure from his role and the demoralized department he left behind.

First hired by the city in 2018, Greenway came to the department after having served with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. In his six years as the police chief, officers quoted in the report describe an embattled Greenway involved in alleged misconduct and multiple ongoing feuds with city leadership and neighboring law enforcement agencies and who frequently berated his staff.

Before he was placed on administrative leave in October, the report alleges Greenway falsified officer training records, destroyed body camera evidence depicting excessive use of force and sent pornographic messages to police officers.

After Greenway was placed on leave, the city hired retired Oregon City police Chief Jim Band to lead an investigation into Greenway’s performance. The names of the officers quoted in the report have been redacted, and Band states that Greenway retired from his position shortly before he was to be interviewed for the investigation.

“The different statements and behaviors shared through interviews showed that Greenway seemed more preoccupied with some sort of personal vendettas against former Mayor Rick Scholl and City Administrator John Walsh than with the community expectation of his job as chief,” Band concluded in the report. “It also seemed that Greenway was willing to do this at the cost of public safety.”

‘You’re going to die’

In 2019, a man jumped into the Columbia River in an attempt to evade arrest by the SHPD officers pursuing him.

The officers followed the man by boat as he attempted to swim to Sand Island Marine Park and eventually convinced him to board the vessel. The officers didn’t handcuff the man while he was on the boat to protect him from drowning in case he fell into the water, so when they got to shore, the man took off again, according to the report.

After pursuing the man again, a former officer quoted in the report said Greenway was on the ground fighting with him.

“There’s a point where he’s got the suspect in a headlock and he’s holding the guy’s head underwater,” the former officer said. “Saying, ‘You’re going to die, motherf—–.’”

Footage of the incident was caught on the body cameras worn by three officers at the scene, the officer said, and he only learned about the incident by watching that footage later. But when a public records request was later made for the footage, it was gone.

“We could never find it,” the officer said.

Another officer who is responsible for reviewing body camera footage when force is used by SHPD officers corroborated the story.

“I don’t remember him actually holding the guy under the water, but I want to say the comment that was made was like, ‘You’re going to drown, motherf—–,’” the other officer said. “Something along those lines.”

The second officer also states that the footage was tagged incorrectly and then deleted automatically by the system.

Feuds and factions

One of the major points of contention among officers interviewed in the report was Greenway’s policy that severely limited SHPD officers from assisting other agencies on calls.

“This policy’s not going to work,” an former officer quoted in the report said. “It’s going to get people hurt.”

The officer said he and two other officers brought their concerns up to former Mayor Rick Scholl and former city Police Commissioner Keith Locke, but their complaints fell on “deaf ears.”

“We knew at that point that there was no — if that’s the Police Commissioner and the Mayor — there was nowhere for an officer that has issues with (Greenway) to go,” the officer said. “There was literally nowhere to go when the top bosses of the city are just blindly supporting.”

The issue came to a head on at least two occasions mentioned in the report. The first time was in 2021 when a suspect on the run crashed into Oregon State Police Trooper John Jeffries, hospitalizing the trooper for months. St. Helens police officers assisted during the incident — much to the chagrin of Greenway. Greenway berated an officer, who has since left the department, for giving the green light for SHPD officers to help, according to the report.

“It’s a running joke … have you ever been yelled at for something you got a life-saving award for? Because I got an award from the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association for this one,” the former officer said.

The second occasion was when Columbia County Sheriff Brian Pixley — whom Greenway frequently referred to as “Sheriff Muffin Tits” in front of the rest of the department — returned fire and shot a man dead at Grumpy’s Towing in 2022.

The former officer describes hearing Pixley’s call for help come in over the radio. His fellow officers asked if they were allowed to lend a hand at the scene — wary to do so without permission in the face of prior orders.

“I think I told one of them, ‘Are you f—- — kidding me?’ and hung up the phone and just flew there,” the former officer said. “I beat both of them, even though I was further outside of town than them because they were so scared to go.”

Not only did Greenway appear to have a vendetta against Pixley, but officers interviewed in the report state that he had a heavy hand in the St. Helens police union’s vote of no confidence against Scholl and Walsh.

Acting Chief Joe Hogue, who was a lieutenant at the time before he stepped into the role of acting chief after Greenway was placed on administrative leave, said in the report that months after the vote of no confidence, Greenway admitted to him that he told the union to vote that way.

Unbecoming of the chief

Multiple officers quoted in the report brought up that Greenway sometimes attended meetings of other cities and agencies via Zoom under the name “Mike Coxlong.”

Hogue recounted hearing Greenway brag about logging onto the Scappoose City Council meetings to take advantage of the city’s administrative settings by muting or kicking other people out of the meeting.

“It’s a bad thing for anybody, but particularly bad for a Chief,” Hogue said. “He would talk to the staff, sometimes even in a formal setting, like a staff meeting, and really disparage other cities, or other officers, and other agencies. And so it concerned me that he was really showing them that that was okay.”

Other officers state that Greenway would text them links that led to pornography, or photos of city employees photoshopped onto pornographic images.

“I just didn’t think it was appropriate for the Chief to be sending that to a group of officers,” an officer quoted in the report said.

Abuse of power

The report also alleges that Greenway offered to allow officers to falsify their time cards and their scores on physical fitness tests.

SHPD officers were required to participate in the timed Oregon Physical Abilities Test, and would receive a bonus if they completed the test in the required time.

A former officer recalled being in the squad room with Greenway, who offered to let him skip the test.

“It was just Greenway and I, and he told me, ‘Hey, look, I know these physical fitness incentives are bullsh–, I know these tests suck. I’m going to make it so only I score these, and you don’t really have to run it, I’ll just say you did,’” the former officer recalled Greenway saying.

Officers also recount Greenway bragging about illegally using his equipment, such as by turning on the lights on his police car in order to get through traffic on his commute home.

Bullying and retaliation

Greenway was known for his temper, and would frequently yell at employees in public settings, the report alleges.

Multiple officers quoted in the report said Greenway once loudly chastised a female officer for filing too many reports.

“And she was distraught, crying,” one officer said. “And so Chief had found out that she was crying about that incident, and that’s when he said, ‘That’s why you don’t hire women in law enforcement.’”

Other officers quoted in the report corroborated that statement.

He was also known to retaliate against those who fell out of favor with him by revoking training opportunities or vehicles and blackmailing them. Specific instances of blackmail were redacted in the report.

Feeling the brunt

Greenway is described as often being upset about the amount of funding allocated to the department by the city.

The police department has been short-staffed for years and announced that it would stop providing 24/7 police patrols effective Oct. 1 last year. Greenway was placed on administrative leave about a week later, and the department returned to 24/7 patrols Nov. 1.

Multiple officers state that Greenway seemed averse to finding solutions to the staffing and coverage issues, either by discouraging officers from picking up overtime shifts or publicly stating that he hoped the department didn’t get any applicants for its open positions.

“The perceived reasoning behind Chief Greenway’s behavior was that he wanted the City to ‘feel it’ in terms of his belief that they were not giving him the staffing increases for which he had asked,” Band states in the report.

Moving forward

The city of St. Helens said it is implementing a variety of changes to undo the damage done to the department and prevent it from happening again.

The policy that prohibited SHPD from assisting other agencies has been rewritten “to be better community partners,” and a wellness program for employees has been introduced.

The city may also transition to “at will” employment contracts for some leadership positions instead of allowing termination only for just cause.

“Moving forward, the St. Helens City Council and City of St. Helens are committed to making changes so that this does not occur again,” a statement from the city reads. “People should expect high ethical standards from their public officials, and we are working to ensure that our employees exceed expectations.”