Merge the Portland cops with the county sheriff's office?

That's the suggestion that's floating around. The mayor says he is intrigued by the idea. But I think it might be Susan Collins-type intrigue. The mayor is in the fight of his political life, and anything passable as not-too-radical police reform probably looks to him like a life preserver looks to a drowning man.

The corporate structure of the police force is not nearly as important as the culture, and I'm not sure a merger would do anything to change that.

Meanwhile, City Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly have some other ideas, which the mayor isn't so intrigued by. They would –

eliminate funding for the [police bureau's] Rapid Response Team, which is responsible for crowd control, and the Special Emergency Reaction Team, which functions as the city’s SWAT team. 

It just gets odder and odder down at City Hall. No crowd control unit, no SWAT team... that would be a real interesting situation. The dueling rioters would love it. 

But there's no sense fretting about it until the election results are final, I suppose.