A former Portland Police officer will be reinstated after he was fired for leaking information that falsely implicated former City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a hit-and-run crash back in 2021.

Portland police cleared Hardesty in the hit-and-run incident.

An arbitrator appointed by the state labor board ruled that the city improperly fired officer Brian Hunzeker.

After the incident in March of 2021, Hunzeker resigned from his position as the head of the Portland Police Association but remained a police officer. The mayor fired him last March.

However, the arbitor ruled the discipline should have been a one-week unpaid suspension.

In a release on the decision, the state said:

“The Arbitrator makes the general observation that there is a national concern over the power of an arbitrator to put back to work an officer that should not be in law enforcement. Clearly, the public should be concerned when officers keep their employment when they have a history of unacceptable violence. That is not the case for Officer Hunzeker.”

The PPA petitioned for Hunzeker to be reinstated, acknowledging that people might see it as lacking accountability.

"The real challenge with police accountability is one hundred percent of police officers are human beings," said Aaron Schmautz, the current president of the PPA. "Police officers make mistakes just like anyone else, and they're entitled to due process just like anyone else."

Hardesty filed a $5 million lawsuit against the city and the police union over the incident.

KATU News reached out to Hardesty several times for a comment. As of 3 p.m., we have yet to hear back.

The arbitrator also ordered the city to give Hunzeker backpay, not including the one-week suspension. That equates to roughly 11 months of pay.