Opinion
4A
Thursday, July 30, 2020
From the editor’s desk
Put the
blame where
it belongs
L
a Grande police on Sunday, July 26,
responded to Bi-Mart to trespass a cus-
tomer who refused to wear a mask.
According to the local law enforcement daily bul-
letin, the customer decided to wear a mask and
shop once the offi cer showed up.
Over in
Enterprise,
FROM THE EDITOR
a Wallowa
County sher-
PHIL
iff’s deputy on
WRIGHT
OBSERVER EDITOR
Friday, July
24, cited a
woman for tres-
passing at the Ace Hardware after she refused
to wear a mask and refused to leave because she
would not wear a mask.
Gov. Kate Brown handed down the requirement
for anyone 5 and older to wear masks in public
spaces. The Oregon Occupational Safety and
Health Administration has the job of enforcing
Brown’s orders to combat the spread of the virus.
OSHA’s lever is fi nes and penalties against busi-
nesses that don’t comply. Thus business owners,
managers and employees have the onus of having
to enforce a mandate that came down from on
high.
That makes Brown an easy target to blame for
putting businesses in a tough spot. But that would
be misplacing the blame.
Businesses of all kinds have to obey rules and
laws to help ensure public safety. Ask bartenders
and bar owners the consequences they can face
if their establishment serves too much booze to
customers. Restaurants don’t have to provide you
healthy food or even tasty food, but they have
legal requirements to make sure their food is safe
for consumption. Certain employers hire safety
managers to implement state and federal safety
rules and regulations.
Still, it’s fair to acknowledge a manager or
owner of a hardware or general store is not likely
to have confrontations with customers that a bar-
keep may have and probably does not have to give
customers the boot as often.
Most Eastern Oregonians respect the notion of
personal responsibility. As such, the real culprit in
a confrontation over wearing a mask in a public
space is the person refusing to wear the mask.
Really, how different is this from someone
who insists on driving drunk? Or refuses to keep
their ill-behaved dog on a leash? If someone with
an aggressive dog tried to enter a grocery store,
a manager would have every right to refuse to
let that person shop with that dog because it’s a
danger to everyone there.
If the store let the dog in and it bit someone
in the store, the victim likely could sue the dog’s
owner, sure, but the business also would be liable.
A business does not want that kind of liability.
And does a business want a reputation of being
lax on requirements dealing with the coronavirus?
Does not seem like many would.
And we each have rights of personal expression
— thanks to the state and federal constitutions —
but the adage that your liberties end where another
person’s nose begins holds true when it comes to
wearing face coverings in public.
You can forgo a mask and act out in all kinds of
ways, but you can’t endanger others while you do
so. Nothing gives you that right.
My Voice
We’re committed to the community
I
n my 27 years of service to our
community, I have never seen
greater challenges than our offi -
cers are facing today.
This being said, our offi cers are
not deterred and remain honored to
serve in their chosen profession. The
men and women who serve as your
La Grande police offi cers are not only
offi cers — they are friends, parents,
neighbors, coaches and members of
our community.
In June, The Observer requested
“all documentation regarding formal
and informal complaints against
members of the La Grande Police
Department over the past three
years.” To maintain the trust and
legitimacy that we enjoy within our
community, it is very important that
we are as transparent and open as
possible within the laws governing
these records, so I was pleased to pro-
vide the requested information.
As noted in The Observer article,
“Addressing discontent” on July 14,
2020, over the course of the last three
years, the La Grande Police Depart-
ment received 11 citizen complaints.
In that same period of time, our offi -
cers responded to calls for service or
had contacts with community mem-
bers a total of 39,729 times. Some
may conclude that any complaint
against a police offi cer is for exces-
sive force.
To help understand the nature of
the complaints we’ve received in the
last three years, I will share a brief
synopsis of each.
• A situation where an offi cer saw
a person, waved and smiled. The
person was unhappy, because they
had previously asked the offi cer not to
do that.
• A person was upset with the pro-
cess an offi cer used during the course
MY VOICE
GARY BELL
LA GRANDE POLICE CHIEF
of an investigation.
• An offi cer did not communicate
effectively during the course of an
investigation.
• An offi cer showed a lack of
empathy when issuing a citation.
• A person was unhappy that an
allegation couldn’t be proven.
• One of our staff members was
discourteous while off-duty in a
public location.
• An offi cer did not provide all
options that law allowed.
• A complaint from a community
member that was unsubstantiated
by others in the neighborhood, and
the person was dissatisfi ed with the
outcome.
• A complaint about communica-
tions an offi cer participated in while
off-duty.
• A person asked an offi cer to do
something they did not have the legal
authority to do, and the person did not
like the tone of the dialogue with the
offi cer.
• The one complaint for use
of force was when three offi cers
responded to a call where someone
armed with a weapon was threatening
their own life, and offi cers tackled the
person.
The truth is, our police offi cers
are human beings with increasingly
diffi cult jobs often performed in
very stressful circumstances for all
involved.
Even with our rigorous on-going
training, up-to-date policies that
refl ect best practices, and the very
best of intentions, there are instances
where someone isn’t happy and they
let us know. When they do, what hap-
pens next is representative of our
commitment to professionalism and
the pursuit of excellence. Our com-
munity absolutely deserves nothing
less. We address every complaint,
informal or formal, and take the
appropriate action based on the cir-
cumstances. When mistakes are
made, we learn from them, address
the issue through training, policy
change, or if necessary, take disci-
plinary action as appropriate.
I believe it is critically important
that as a community we recognize
there are unfortunately times when
someone may not like the outcome of
a contact with a police offi cer. How-
ever, that doesn’t mean the offi cer
engaged in or is guilty of miscon-
duct. Sometimes the police can (and
should) do better, and sometimes the
person in contact with the police can
(and should) do better.
I will end by sharing one of the
written expectations I have for my
staff regarding customer service:
“Our community has entrusted us and
we owe it to them to keep that trust. I
expect you to treat others the way you
would want yourself or a member of
your family to be treated.”
The people serving you at the La
Grande Police Department care about
our community, and we will continue
to achieve our mission by adhering to
our core values.
If anyone feels our offi cers
aren’t meeting these expectations, I
encourage them to let me know.
About the Author
Gary Bell is the chief of the
La Grande Police Department.
Letters
Preparing for digital future
is great news
It was very gratifying to see the
June issue of “The Ruralite” with
an article on the changes coming
to transportation: “How Electric
Vehicles Will Shape the Future of
Driving.”
Our local co-op has been working
to get vehicle chargers installed in the
towns it serves. That’s a good place
to start. It’s possible that customers
could eventually partner with the
Write to us
The Observer welcomes letters to the editor. Letters are limited to 400 words and must be
signed and carry the author’s address and phone number (for verifi cation purposes only). Email
your letters to news@lagrandeobserver.com or mail them to the address below.
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative.
The co-op could leverage intelligent
vehicle chargers and batteries to make
different portions of its grid more
robust, and to provide valuable ser-
vices that save the utility and its cus-
tomers money.
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative
is preparing for a digital future. That’s
great news for all of us.
Norm Cimon
La Grande