Police commission releases new protest policies
■An advisory panel otters
recommendations on six
police policies involving use
of force, conflict strategies
By Sue Ryan
Oregon Daily Emerald
A Eugene advisory police com
mission presented the fruits of a
two-and-a-half year review of po
lice policies Wednesday to the lo
cal community. The recommenda
tions centered on six individual
policies, including the creation of
a new policy on public assemblies
and demonstrations.
The new policy provides guide
lines for officers on how they re
spond to events which do not meet
the definition ot a civil distur
bance.
“The focus is on conflict preven
tion strategies to allow the event to
proceed peacefully,” said John
Brown, a police commission mem
ber.
These strategies include police
monitoring the event, maintaining
neutrality, communicating with
participants and making enforce
ment decisions which are propor
tionate to the offender’s behavior.
The policy dictates that the officer
assess the threat to public safety
while enforcing order.
Commission members also re
viewed the technique known as
field force. Police use this tech
nique of working together as an or
ganized unit in incidents involving
a group. The commission also
studied the general use of force,
control techniques, less lethal
weapons and the use of pepper
spray.
The mayor appointed the com
mission in the fall of 1999 which
serves as an advisory board to the
city council on police issues.
“This is the first time a citizens’
group has been involved with po
lice review,” said Jeannine Parisi,
an analyst for the Eugene Police
Commission. “There has been a
history of conflicts with protesters
and police each June.”
Parisi said the annual tensions
began with a tree-sitting June
1,1997, followed by a riot in June
1999 and annual commemorations
each year since.
“The third weekend in June
seems to [be]... followed by politi
cal activism and at times, people
getting arrested,” she said.
Before presenting the recom
mendations to the public, the po
lice commission met with the Eu
gene City Council Tuesday
evening during a work session on
the policies. Mayor Jim Torrey said
the work session was not to change
the policies.
“We are here to hear Council’s
opinion of that recommendation,”
he said at the meeting.
Councilors acknowledged the
complexity of the commission’s
task.
“It was a balancing act to give
the police department discretion to
use their best judgment and yet
give the community a sense that
policies are being carried out con
sistently,” Councilor Bonny
Bettman said.
Councilors had questions re
garding definitions of certain activ
ities, including the difference be
tween passive and static
resistance. Police commission
member Floyd Prozanski said the
commission worked on showing
the difference between the two lev
els instead of lumping both into
one category.
“Passive resistance is basically
when the person goes limp after
they have been told they will be ar
rested,” he said.
The new recommendations have
been e-mailed to all officers in the
police department.
Fledgling tech industry continues to give donations
■ Despite a recent downward
trend for online technologies,
the University is not seeing a
decrease in their donations
By Brooke Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
According to an industry track
ing Web site www.smallcapcen
ter.com, CNN laid off more than
400 Internet employees this year.
Teligent.com, a telecommunica
tions company, laid some 900 peo
ple off. ScreamingMedia.com re
cently lost more than $4 million in
the stock market, while ToyS
mart.com and e.spire Communica
tions both filed bankruptcy within
the last year. Craftshop.com, a for
mer Connecticut e-retailer, recently
shut down its operation altogether.
The red-hot technology industry
has cooled off, with Internet dot
corns going under left and right, ac
cording to countless media reports
on the Web and in the mainstream
press. But the University is not
feeling the effects with any de
creases in donations from the high
tech sector.
Higher education institutions
across the country, including the
University, often receive financial
support from some of these compa
nies and the money helps to open
doors for both research and curricu
lum. Although several companies
seem to be going under, University ad
ministrators are not worried that the
companies’ financial support will end.
Susan Plass, University director of
corporate and foundation relations,
said the University receives funding
from Intel, Cisco Systems and about
four other computer technology
companies through donations, in
ternship programs and endow
ments.
“1 haven’t heard any hints that
things are going to change,” she
said,
Plass, who works to match up
outside companies with areas of the
University where there is financial
need, said several different depart
ments receive funding from Internet
companies including the Comput
ing Center, the Charles H.
Lundquist College of Business and
the Materials Science Institute. She
said the companies have just as
much interest in funding education
as the schools who receive the fi
nancial support.
“They don’t want to see the pipe
line of well-trained students stop,”
she said.
Intel recently named three Uni
versity faculty members as 2001 In
tel Faculty Fellows and awarded
the University grant money to sup
port new projects to advance tech
nological education.
Plass said the company has do
nated thousands of dollars to the
University in the last few years and
does not think the trend will stop
any time soon.
“Intel is a good example of a com
pany that looks broadly across the
University,” she said. “I’ve heard
nothing that suggests their fellow
ship program is in jeopardy.”
Dietrich Belitz, physics professor
and department head, is one of the
three University professors who re
ceived a $35,000 fellowship from
Intel for their work in semiconduc
tor processing and characterization.
He said while the success of the In
ternet industry is of some interest to
the physics department, he is not
worried about the overall success of
the Internet economy.
“The computer industry is doing
just fine,” he said. “I can’t see any
warning signs at this point.”
Belitz said he is aware that sever
al dot-coms are failing, but he said
those businesses are just one part of
a huge industry.
“I’m not concerned at all,” he
said. “It’s absolutely clear that com
puter technology is here to stay.”
Joanne Hugi, director of the Com
puting Center, agrees with Belitz.
She said the center has received
about 10 donations from computer
technology companies over the last
several years, including a donation
from Cisco Systems.
Hugi said the financial support
they have received from outside
companies were typically one-time
donations, and sometimes they
were not even money donations but
rather computer equipment gifts.
“Although the stock market may
have dumped on them as well, I
don’t think any of us think they’re
going out of business,” she said.