Nathan Sheppard is a Lieutenant in the Portland police bureau. He is a father. Both he and his wife of 21 years are Army veterans who were psychological operation specialists.
Nathan was happy to share his story, but he made a clear distinction that although he worked as a police officer in Portland, he was not talking to me as a representative of the police department, but rather as Nathan.
He said, “I will definitely share my thoughts as a member of law enforcement. I think that that more members of law enforcement should talk, there should be more conversations. That being said, I'm not the public information officer for the Portland Police Bureau in any way, shape or form. My thoughts are my own. My ideas are my own. Although I don't think there’s going to be anything that the police bureau would reject or renounce, this is not an official visit. This is Nathan.”
We talked about what motivated him to serve in law enforcement, the challenges of historic unrest in the city and the various lenses through which he views current events as a black man, a police officer and a father.