Jensen ends stint with KGW The Portland Police captain-turned-TV-reporter hopes to rejoin the force
09/06/03
JOSEPH ROSE
Portland cop-turned-KGW-reporter C.W. Jensen has abandoned television's blue glow with hopes of once again suiting up in police blues.
After two years at KGW -- where his on-air reports ranged from news-chopper dispatches on March's huge antiwar rally to a close encounter with a pit bull's jaws -- Jensen left his job at the Portland station Friday.
Jensen was a Portland police captain when he was placed on disability in 1999 after claiming post-traumatic stress disorder. His claim stemmed from an incident in 1985, when he shot and killed a robbery suspect who was threatening a hostage with a knife.
Jensen is also a close friend of new Police Chief Derrick Foxworth, who was named to the position after Mark Kroeker's resignation last week.
But Jensen, who was also part of Foxworth's wedding party, said his relationship with the city's new top cop had nothing to do with his decision to leave KGW.
"It has been my goal for several months to return to the Police Bureau," he said. "Being a crime reporter is probably a conflict of interest with that goal."
Rod Gramer, KGW executive news director, said he heard about Jensen's plans to leave a few weeks ago. "This all predated the Kroeker thing," he said.
Gramer said he took Jensen off the crime beat as soon as he heard the reporter wanted to go back to the bureau.
Jensen, who also sought treatment for alcohol addiction in the 1990s, said his rehabilitation for post-traumatic stress has reached a point where he can seriously consider being a cop again.
First, he needs to convince a city disability-review board that he is ready for duty.
Babette Heeftle, administrator for the fire and police disability pension fund, said all indications are that Jensen will file the required paperwork soon. To rejoin the force, she said, his doctor would need to clear him for the stresses of police work.
While Jensen would be allowed to return as a captain, officials said there is no guarantee he would get his old job in the training division. The bureau might also require him to undergo a separate fitness-for-duty evaluation, Heeftle said.
Jensen joined the bureau as a street cop in 1978, eventually becoming a homicide detective, a shift commander, public information officer and a captain in training and internal affairs.
He was also a commentator on Fox television's "World's Scariest Police Chases" and "Police Videos." Before going to work at KGW, he received $5,248 a month in disability payments, which shrank to $2,764 as he earned a reporter's paycheck, city officials said.
If he returns to the bureau, Jensen will face an unresolved internal affairs investigation. Police will only say that it involves "procedure and conduct." Jensen prefers to say nothing about it.
He began at KGW by hosting special news segments. The station offered him a full-time reporter's job last year.
Covering crime stories for KGW, Jensen had a lot of shining moments, Gramer said, including Jensen's block-by-block coverage of how police handled March's massive Iraq war protest in downtown Portland.
"He had been there, done that," Gramer said. "He could really tell us what was going on on the ground."
Gramer said Jensen also brought insight into the Ward Weaver murder investigation.
And there was the time he put his neck on the line while doing a story about neighborhood concerns about a pit bull. In front of a TV camera, the dog jumped at Jensen, his teeth snapping.
"It nipped at him," Gramer said. "I think the dog tore his shirt." Joseph Rose: 503-221-8029; josephrose@news.oregonian.com
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