District 4 City Council candidate and Portland police officer Eli Arnold is ranked among the top police officers for incidents in which force was used against a person, according to Portland Police Bureau (PPB) data.
Arnold, a downtown bike patrol officer, has reported using force 59 times since PPB hired him in May 2017. That’s the 14th highest number of incidents out of 991 officers during that 10-year period. Arnold is an outlier in the data. Just 12 other officers have notched between 50-59 reported uses of force, and just 13 officers reported 60 or more. In 2021, he was ranked number one in reported use of force incidents.
The Mercury pulled data from PPB’s use of force reporting dashboard, which is regularly updated 45 days after the end of each quarter. The data was analyzed by a third party, and verified by the Mercury.
PPB directives require an officer to document each time they use force. The type of force is categorized by levels of severity and the likelihood of injury. Category I is the most serious level, which includes neck holds, intentionally striking a person, in-custody deaths, and deadly use of force. Category II are those that result in serious injury, hospitalization, loss of consciousness, and any striking or multiple uses of a taser. Category III is defined as force that results in physical injury from one use of a taser, less lethal weapons, takedowns, punching and kicking, or pointing a firearm at a person.
The least serious is Category IV, otherwise called De Minimis Force, marked by an officer using handcuffs or other techniques that are unlikely to cause pain or injury. In 2024, PPB changed its directives to change Category IV to De Minimis Force, and officers are no longer required to file paperwork for those lower-level incidents. That likely reduces the number of Category IV reports in the data after the rules were changed.
In data retrieved via a public dashboard for use of force reporting, PPB assigns a unique code number to officers, rather than identifying them by name. PPB confirmed Arnold’s number, 430191, for the Mercury’s reporting.
Records show Arnold sits above the average number of reports every year, from 2019 to 2024. But two years in particular stand out for Arnold’s high use of force reports. In 2021, Arnold was particularly aggressive. He clocked in as the top officer in reported use of force that year, with 18 incidents. That’s nearly five times the average, based on the 465 officers who reported force during the same period. The next four officers are tied, with 17 incidents each that year. Lower-level Category III and IV were split with eight instances each.
The year 2023 was similar. Arnold was fifth among all officers who reported using force that year.
This isn’t the first time PPB’s data has been analyzed to reveal patterns in use of force among officers. In 2024, a local abolitionist research group Ctrl-Alt-Defund published available data from 2017 to 2023, and issued a report outlining its findings. Ctrl-Alt-Defund was not involved in the Mercury’s analysis. The latest available PPB dataset is current through March 2026.
Arnold told the Mercury October 27 that he was unsure if he could provide comment without crossing boundaries for PPB employees. This story will be updated if he is cleared to comment.
PPB spokesperson Mike Benner said when evaluating the use of force data, it is important to consider Arnold’s assignment, and the nature of the calls he responds to.
“Officers assigned to Bike Squad patrol Downtown Portland, where they are often in a position to directly observe criminal activity as it’s happening and intervene in real time,” Benner said. “Those encounters can involve suspects attempting to flee, actively resisting arrest, or experiencing drug-related impairment that makes it difficult to gain compliance safely.”
The data does not include force used during 2020 racial justice protests—those were documented separately prior to the last quarter of 2022. Arnold was a member of the PPB Rapid Response Team—colloquially known as the riot squad—which documented more than 6,000 uses of force in 2020 alone. In one report recently released to the public, Arnold said he pushed a protester twice with a baton for disobeying orders during a declared riot.
Arnold told the Mercury in September that he became “frustrated” by indiscriminate use of tear gas, and was the first to resign from the riot squad during the summer of 2020.
What circumstances lead to force?
Benner provided hypothetical examples for why Arnold may respond differently than officers in other precincts, saying some of Arnold’s uses of force may involve “maintaining control of a person who is resisting handcuffing or safely securing someone experiencing severe meth intoxication who is being treated on a gurney.”
Benner said ultimately, the circumstances surrounding each incident matter.
“Any meaningful comparison of officers’ use of force data should account for their assignments, the types of encounters they handle, and the nature and level of force used,” Benner said.
He added that additional training is offered to officers who use force at higher rates.
“Tracking is conducted quarterly and our Inspector General will talk quarterly with Precinct Commanders and Captains if anything seems out of the ordinary,” Benner said. “These conversations could result in additional training or reassignments.”
Arnold’s most common use of force was reported as “controlled against resistance,” meaning resisting arrest and handcuffs, at 64 percent. That’s on par with PPB officer averages, but stands out compared with other Central Precinct daytime officers, at 56 percent of their arrests.
But Arnold reported two instances of Category II use of force in 2021—one involving a 37-year-old Black man, who was reported for resisting arrest in January. He was initially called in as an “unwanted person” and faced felony arrest. The other, in June of that year, was a 23-year-old white man who was reported as being on drugs, biting, and resisting handcuffs. That suspect was injured, and faced felony arrest.
Two years later, in 2023, Arnold used force four times more than the 411 officers who also reported using force against suspects. That’s a total of 13 incidents—ranked fifth among all officers. Broken down by category, Arnold used Category III six times, and Category IV seven times that year. He reported no Category II incidents. By comparison, the top officer in 2023 reported 26 uses of force.
Demographics suggest patterns of escalated interactions with Black and unhoused residents
Records show Arnold does not apply force equally. Arnold disproportionately used force against homeless Portlanders and Black Portlanders, according to the data. Arnold has mostly worked in the Central Precinct, most recently as a member of PPB’s bike patrol in Old Town. That’s an area of the city that sees a high rate of homelessness. But 75 percent of Arnold’s reported uses of force were against homeless people.
When broken down by racial demographics, data shows Arnold used force against white Portlanders 53 percent of the time, and Black Portlanders 39 percent, despite Black residents making up just under 6 percent of the city’s population. He also used force against white residents at a lower rate than the average officer.
Black residents are also overrepresented in local homelessness statistics. Multnomah County Homeless Services Department data shows that 19 percent of homeless residents in the county are Black, despite making up just 8 percent of the county population at large.
Arnold most commonly reported using force due to perceiving drug use, making up 42 percent of his total activity, or 25 cases. He reported 11 instances in which the force used required medical attention—roughly the same rate as PPB overall. Of Arnold’s 59 uses of force, 51 ended in the person’s arrest—19 felonies, 15 misdemeanors, and 17 warrants.
Asked if Arnold has faced disciplinary actions or additional training on use of force, Benner, the PPB spokesperson, said it would require a public records request, but the personnel matter is unlikely to produce significant information.
State records show Arnold received training around implicit biases and institutional racism in May 2021, training for interacting with homeless residents in July 2022, De Minimus force training in September 2024, and updated use of force training in December 2024.
