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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2000)
Tuesday Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas Newsroom: (541)346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu April 4,2000 Volume 101, Issue 123 Emerald orce Perhaps the worst news to tell someone is that of an unexpected death, and I learned it’s also the worst time to make quick assumptions about how close someone was to the deceased. When someone at my high school died, in pursuit of in formation, I broke the news to a friend who also knew the deceased. Unfortunately, I really underestimated how close the two were. Based on my one experience, I am terrified of the next time I’ll have to do something like that. Even if I had known how close my friend had been to the de- j ceased, it still takes a pretty high emotional intelli- / gence quotient to find the right words when deliv- / ering the news. Or maybe a lot of training. But / who needs those skills that much? j Police officers? They seem to get a lot of soci ety’s unpleasant tasks. Can we expect them to do other jobs with the same proficiency as their primary one of keeping society peace ful? Maybe not. The Eugene Police De partment has recognized that some jobs are better left to experts. So in 1989, they relinquished certain tasks by sponsoring a program called CAHOOTS. As acronyms go, it’s unusual to find one that long that actually makes sense. “Cri sis Assistance — Helping Out On The Streets,” however, pretty much sums up what they do. And as the initials imply, it is an example of a community organiza tion, White Bird, collaborating with the Eugene police. ‘“Community policing’ uses ways of dealing with prob lems that end up in the police department’s lap, but in ways that aren’t traditional to law enforcement,” CA HOOTS coordinator David Zeiss said. Those problems in clude dealing with public drunkenness, checking the wel fare of shut-ins and delivering really bad news. You may have seen the CAHOOTS van driving around Eugene. It’s big, white and obvious. Other than that, though, it is easy to have never heard of CAHOOTS. “We don’t advertise very much,” Zeiss said. “Most of the time that we operate, we’re already engaged.” So there isn’t any need for more “business.” But it is an important to be called away to a public safety emergency? Though the CAHOOTS van is less likely to be called away from a location for a riot, murder or traffic accident, there is still the ever-present pressure of another dispatch. Anyone who has been a single parent or the only manager at a restaurant knows the problems of not having any i backup. There is just one CAHOOTS van, and it can only \ afford to operate half-time, despite an average of 12 calls | per day. | And here we see the problem with declining support ! for public services funded through taxes. When voters defeated the Lane County public-safety ballot measure last year, money that could have supported a second CAHOOTS unit running an overlapping shift never materialized. Is CAHOOTS the feel-good but dying dream of a society that steadily declines in support of public works? I hope not. Funding people to do what : they’re good at, what their trained for and what they want to do will inevitably be much more effec Katie Nesse Emerald tive than simply delegating the task to people who might not fit any of those criteria. Although the CAHOOTS employees cur rently have plenty to do, I think it’s impor tant that more people in Eugene know about this. For everyone, it is a program that might be personally useful in a fu ture crisis, and it might help voters re consider the next time public-safety tax measures come up. For students, most of whom will leave and unique service available in Eugene. So, from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m., CAHOOTS answers calls that the police feel a counselor is better suited to handle (generally, these are a result of folks who call either 911 or, more appropriately, 682-5111). I have to admire the program for taking on some really depressing tasks, especially the death notifications. “When a death occurs and it’s necessary to notify family members ... they’re not enjoyable to do. But we think we do a good job of caring for people who receive the news of those circumstances,” Zeiss said. Again, it’s a job tradi tionally associated with police, but isn’t it better to send someone who is both trained in counseling and not going isugene eventually, u is a great moaei ror otner cities, many of which have no such program. “It was certainly unique when we designed it. We didn’t have any models,” Zeiss said. Now that Eugene and White Bird have done the hard work, “selling” the program to other localities won’t be as difficult, and students are the ideal population to spread the idea. The next time you need to break some bad news, con sider how much folks who have to learn from a stranger will benefit from being told by a professional. i Jonathan Gruber is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emerald. His views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. He can be reached via e-mail jgruber@gladstone.uoregon.edu. World Wide What Do you think the Student Senate’s passing of a pledge for diversity and stance against bigotry is in conflict with First Amendment rights? J—b—e_w... e h tt I think people should be re spectful of others re gardless of color. ” Leah Wyatt freshman pre-journalism tt As long as the pledge is confined to the Student Senate ex pressing its opinion, the pledge does not conflict with First Amendment rights. ” Laura Close sophomore political science tt It's sad that we have to [have a] petition to be aware of racism. It should be a given. The UO should be more aware. Chris Hsu senior fine arts www.dailyemerald.com Hit’s still covering up issues that are ugly. It
