Under the right circumstances, a ride in a Eugene Police Department car isn’t all that bad.
Tom Patterson Emerald
Cornering Eugene’s bad guys
■ A night spent cavorting
with some of the Eugene
Police Department’s best
reveals what it’s like to take
the law into your own hands;
as an officer of the law, that is
By Rebecca Newell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Gripping the passenger side
door, I was in a car hurtling down
Sixth Avenue in the wee morning
hours at more than 100 miles per
hour. I wasn’t a victim of a drag
racing driver nor on my way to any
hospital.
No, I was in the passenger seat of
a police car,
surrounded
by as many
gadgets as
an airplane
cockpit,
with Offi
cer Mark
Hubbard in hot pursuit of some
runaway bikers — the BMX type,
not motorcyclists.
As my first ride in a police car —
and fortunately in the passenger
side rather than the back — there
was a lot to see, despite what Hub
bard described as a “slow Wednes
day night.” Which meant no
bloodshed, drug users or dead bod
ies. All of which aren’t unusual
sights for a Eugene Police Depart
ment officer.
Hubbard, who has been in the
force for two years, said an officer
never knows what he could be up
against on a call. It could be a
frightened woman calling because
her dog treed a raccoon, and won’t
stop barking. But just as likely, it
could be a man strung out on meth
and booze who assaulted his wife
in front of his kids and refused to
• """* •
Reporter’s
notebook
see the blue uniform as a stop sign.
Hubbard stressed that police
must be objective when arriving on
the scene. In his words, “practice
the Golden Rule.” But break the
rules or try to assault an officer,
and that objective view becomes a
defensive one, where decisions are
instinctive and officers must react
reflexively, using their training to
keep themselves, as well as other
citizens, safe from lawbreakers.
“You don’t really think of it ‘til
afterwards,” Hubbard said. “But
then you think back and think
‘Wow, that was pretty hairy’.”
Hubbard recounted the story of
that boozed-up husband on meth,
who after beating up his wife, went
after the officers arriving on the
scene. It took two officers to hold
down the man and a third to cuff
him, a result of his hyper-charged
drug state.
Of course, patrol duty has more
than its fair share of noise viola
tions, interviews and — yawn —
routine traffic stops. Our first task
of the night was interviewing an
assault victim.
A young man in the downtown
mall had been beaten unconscious
after slapping a teenage girl on the
rear. The events weren’t exactly
clear, as the witnesses gave con
flicting accounts and the victim
had his memory literally almost
knocked out of him, along with
four teeth and a broken nose and
cheek. And the young girl and five
assailants didn’t stick around to be
interrogated, something not un
common in the mall, where many
young adults are transients.
After re-interviewing the victim
at Sacred Heart Hospital, we took a
call for a noise violation. I followed
Hubbard, toting my big plastic “po
lice observer” label which hung
around my neck like a kindergart
ner’s name tag. The apartment was
quiet when we arrived, and when
Hubbard questioned as to the prior
noise, the answer of "we’re watch
ing Letterman, so we wouldn’t turn
the music up” seemed acceptable.
The rule of thumb displayed by
Hubbard and other EPD officers I
had a chance to observe during the
late night and early morning was
definitely an objective one. If peo
ple cooperated and were straight
forward, they consistently got off
with a warning. Jaywalking and
loud music were stereotypes, but
was not limited to drivers who had
committed traffic violations.
Surprisingly, Hubbard did not
pull drivers over for speeding; his
squad car is not equipped with a
radar. Only sheriff’s vehicles and a
select number of squad cars have
radars, though Hubbard noted ex
cessive speed as a surefire way to
be noticed by an officer and to be
pulled over.
In most cases during the ride
along, speeding cars caught Hub
bard’s attention, but were pulled
over for an additional violation,
such as changing lanes within 100
feet of an intersection or driving
with fog lights only.
During a lull in activity, in
which some cops often park and
talk in order to keep themselves
alert during the late night shifts, we
took a tour of the downtown police
station. We traversed through the
dispatch center and the interroga
tion rooms, which come in two
styles: Comfy with couches or
chilling with stark bolted down
furniture and two temporary hold
ing cells, which were just as small
and dingy as their TV alternatives
displayed.
In the evidence room, a huge
Turn to Ride-along, page 16C
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