No one wanted to walk home that night. It was winter in Portland, 2014, and the streets were still slick with rain and melted flurries. Officers from the Portland Bureau of Transportation stood out in the cold and had a mandate: find and stop anyone driving for Uber, the fast-growing ride-hailing start-up.
After months of trying to work with city officials to make the service legal, Uber had thrown negotiations out the window. The service was launching that evening, without the bureau’s approval. At Uber, no one really cared whether or not it was legal.
So Erich England was waiting in front of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, posing as a music fan looking to catch a car home. The Portland transportation enforcement officer planned
