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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2001)
Thursday Editor in chief: jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541)346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com Commissioning DPS officers means commissioning risks In the past week, Tom Fitzpatrick, director of the University’s De partment of Public Safety, has been meeting with cam pus groups and the media to an nounce that DPS will commission as many as 11 of its officers by April 1. For those who haven’t heard, com missioned officers would have the legal right to stop and, frisk peo ple sus pected of ille gal ac tivity and to make probable cause ar il rests. The edi torial board met with Fitzpatrick to discuss the implications of this decision, and we still believe commissioning of ficers is unnecessary and runs the risk of creating further friction be tween students and the officers charged with protecting them. Giving police powers to individu als-who are not police, on its face, seems a little scary.- There are ques tions of safety and responsible con duct for everyone involved. Fitz patrick did offer some rationale for the change, and perhaps it can be weighed against the risks to see if the change holds value. Most upsetting to us, however, is the complete lack of input and consideration.from the students. The last time we checked, stu dents pay a good portion of the money that keeps this school, and DPS, operating. Students are the ones whose safety needs protecting. Why did no one ask what the students thought? Granting our concerns, we would encourage the entire cam pus community to adopt a cau tious wait-and-see policy. Ex treme anger and strident protest are out of balance with the cir cumstances. But Fitzpatrick and other University administrators did not handle this decision in the best way. Our first concern lies with the qual ifications of DPS officers. These offi cers receive a shortened version of train ing which is similar to that given to the Oregon State Police and the Eugene Po lice Department, but it’s not the same. Fitzpatrick said that officers will be eval uated at length before they are commis sioned, and they will receive additional graining from the district attorney’s office and, before July 1, from EPD. That train ing still does not make a police officer. We’re sure there are good personnel at DPS, but they shouldn’t be granted police powers. One of Fitzpatrick’s rationales for the commissioning, according to his press re lease, is that it will better protect the offi cers, “who are oftentimes placed in jeop ardy due to their inability to take enforcement action, pending the arrival of Eugene police and the potential escala tion of the situation being dealt with.” In person, Fitzpatrick told us that in stead of making a citizen’s arrest, which is all officers are currently allowed, they will now be able to handcuff a suspect. Are we to believe that it is somehow safer for an unarmed officer to attempt to phys ically contact and handcuff a suspect? What if the suspect resists? Aren’t un armed DPS officers potentially at greater risk with these new powers? Safety concerns make us think that in the not-too-distant future, arming DPS of ficers will be a consideration. Currently, this is prohibited by Oregon law. Fitz patrick’s press release says, “Research in dicates that Oregon is the only state na tionally that presently does not afford its public institutions of higher education the authority to grant full peace officer status.” That sounds like the beginning of a fu ture argument for arming officers, espe cially if they are in situations where mak ing an arrest compromises their safety. Enhancing students’ safety was cer tainly the main thrust of Fitzpatrick’s dis cussion with the Emerald board, even though crime statistics show our campus is very safe, and violent crimes have fall en to nearly none in recent years. DPS officers with these new powers will be able to follow up on thefts that EPD simply cannot pursue, giving stu dents better protection. DPS officers can investigate a stolen backpack, build a case against a suspect, arrest that student and follow through to the district attor ney’s office and into the courtroom, ac cording to Fitzpatrick. But we don’t believe the district attor ney will be rushing to prosecute every in cidence of thievery. Even if a case is built, we all know that a stolen bike gets moved out of the neighborhood and repainted very quickly. Few people are likely to see this increased service level. Our biggest objection to this change is the lack of outside input. Fitzpatrick said this was an administrative decision, and “administrators are employed to admin istrate.” He also emphasized that students can’t vote on everything. They certainly can not, but for a decision of this magnitude, with the recent history of University President Dave Frohnmayer’s unilateral decision on the Fair Labor Association, wouldn’t it have been both wise and po lite to hold a well-publicized open forum where students could come and have their questions answered and have their concerns heard? The same decision could then have been made, but the per ception toward DPS and the sense of community on campus would have im proved. We would like to ask both Frohnmayer and Fitzpatrick to meet with the commu nity in 170 Lawrence in an open forum and let the campus have an opportunity to speak. Listen to students’ concerns and answer their questions. There are a few questions we still have about this deci sion, and perhaps these could be an swered at such a forum. First, how would the commissioning be funded? Will the officers be paid more, how much will the training cost, and where will this money come from? Second, has commissioning worked well on other Oregon campuses? The oth er campuses are in different environ ments than ours. Were their crime rates higher or lower than our own, and what effect has commissioning had on those rates? Lastly, will this change possibly save .money; i.e., is it a more efficient use of campus and city resources? Now that we’ve had our say, we think everyone should take a deep breath and think about these changes before react ing. Fitzpatrick told us that the phrase “racial profiling” has already been men tioned to him in relation to the officers’ right to stop and frisk. We think that’s go ing a bit far. Perhaps we should accept that everyone is not inherently racist and classist. Fitzpatrick assured us that his of ficers will respond to the situation and not to the individual, and we have no rea son to distrust him. DPS is also setting up a Public Safety Advisory Group to review complaints or commendations of officers, and that board can be expected to deal with profil ing issues, should any arise. Overall, the commissioning seems un necessary and definitely lacks student in put. But perhaps DPS can use these pow ' ers responsibly; perhaps they can rise to the occasion and offer more effective services to the campus. Let’s give them the chance. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emer ald editorial board. Responses can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu. Letters to the editor River deserves our sacrifices The Willamette River cannot be res urrected without sacrifices by all of us. When Vice Provost for Research Richard Linton (“Frohnmayer advises of planned tuition hike,” ODE, Jan. 11) said that “it was in the best interest of the University to leave all options open in regard to the research park,” he raised a hammer that can drive one more nail into the river’s coffin. Franklin W. Stahl professor emeritus molecular biology
