■YMyi-mm
Jon House Emerald
Officer Scott Cameron and CpI. Bob Guse were among the eight total DPS employees
sworn in as commissioned officers Tuesday by DPS Director Tom Fitzpatrick.
DPS
continued from page 1
powerful force, but to provide offi
cers with the legal privileges to per
form a better and more efficient job.
“It isn’t to give us any unneces
sarily overpowering rights to harass
or otherwise,” he said. “It is about
us being able to do our job better
and more effectively.
As well as expecting more pro
fessionalism, Fitzpatrick said he
believes commissioning officers
will also reduce incidents in which
DPS officers’ authority is ques
tioned.
“This provides [officers] with a
level of authority that minimizes
the questioning of what they can
and can’t do,” he said.
Lt. Joan Saylor was one of the
DPS officers commissioned and
she now hopes students will realize
DPS officers do have authority on
campus.
“I know that there are a lot of
times where students don’t partic
ularly know what our role is,” she
said. “I think part of this is helping
folks understand better what our
function is.”
DPS Associate Director Tom
Hicks, Sgt. Lynn Brown, Sgt. Sean
Strahon, Cpl. Bob Guse and officers
Scott Cameron, Rick Bean and
Frank Lewis were also commis
sioned.
Another round of officers are set
to be commissioned in June, Fitz
patrick said.
Guse said a key element of being
commissioned will be to provide
“educational tools” to help stu
dents understand safety issues.
“I think it gives us another level
of professionalism,” he said. “It just
basically gives us more tools to be
able to use to make campus a safer
place, a better place to be.”
To be commissioned, Fitzpatrick
said each officer received several
weeks of police academy training
and had to pass a written test.
Those officers who passed then re
ceived an oral examination from a
board of administrative staff, Uni
versity Housing representatives
and one student.
When Fitzpatrick first made the
announcement that DPS would
commission officers, he received
some criticism from student lead
ers who said it would lead to
greater abuses of power and offi
cers eventually carrying firearms,
which they said could lead to
more violent confrontations with
students and DPS officers.
Fitzpatrick said any decision on
DPS officers carrying firearms can
only be made in the state Legisla
ture, and he said he does not see
that happening soon.
He added commissioning will
only give DPS officers a greater
sense of safety and more recourse
to deal with quarrelsome people,
and that it will not alter much of
DPS operating policy.
“These officers aren’t going to be
doing a lot of things different,” he
said.
In the event of a serious felony
or violent person, Fitzpatrick said
the standard policy will remain to
defer to the Eugene Police Depart
ment.
If a student has any complaint
from how they were treated by a
DPS officer, Fitzpatrick said those
complaints will be closely exam
ined by DPS administrative staff
and dealt with promptly and thor
oughly.
“We’ll certainly be responsive to
any citizen who feels they’ve been
treated poorly,” he said.
But Fitzpatrick stressed that un
der the strict guidelines for officers
to perform their duties “legally
and with an emphasis on under
standing the community’s needs
... we very much want to put forth
a positive image.”
011539
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