SPRINGFIELD
14 — THE CHRONICLE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2019
COFFEE W I T H A COP
Police say casual convos enhance work, build trust
BY VICTORIA STEPHENS
THE CHRONICLE
SPRINGF IELD
–
Springfi eld police offi cers met
with citizens at two Starbucks
on Oct. 21 for informal meet-
ings with the public, giving an
opportunity for citizens to ask
questions or express concerns
they otherwise might not
otherwise call in.
Springfi eld Police Offi cer
Matt Bohman was one of
several offi cers available to
converse with residents over
a cup of joe. He is a traffi c and
safety/enforcement officer
with 21 years of experience
on the force. He is a military
veteran from a several-gener-
ation military family, serving
in the United States Army
from 1992 to 1997 as a mili-
tary police offi cer. He said the
move to becoming a civilian
police officer was a natu-
ral progression from those
duties, and that there are a lot
of things that he enjoys about
police work.
“It’s not a dead-end job,”
he said. “You don’t go in and
push a button for eight hours
a day to stamp out widgets.”
He said there is such a vari-
ety of assignments and an
array of things police offi cers
can do, such as K-9, SWAT,
becoming a detective, work-
ing with the traffi c team, as
a patrol offi cer or on bicy-
cle patrol, and that variety of
options makes it an interest-
ing job. He is also a motor-
cycle enthusiast and enjoys
being outdoors.
The worst part of the job,
he said, is bringing bad news
to families that have lost
loved ones. Bohman spent
10 years on the major crash
team, where his regular duties
including tracking down next
of kin after serious injuries
and fatalities.
“It is hard on a person being
the bearer of bad news,” he
said.
He said police officers
also do death investigations
for people who live by them-
selves. “It happens more than
I would like it to,” he said.
Bohman said he has been
fortunate to have held multi-
ple assignments. He also
worked for 16 years as a drug
recognition evaluator, where
he would be brought in to
assess people who appeared
more impaired than a breath-
alyzer indicated.
He said he has a lot of scary
moments, but most disturbing
for him was a time when he
came close to having to shoot
an armed suspect, before they
chose to drop their weapon.
See POLICE – 22
Springfield Police Officer Matt Bohman by his
motorcycle after the Coffee with a Cop community
meet and greet at Starbucks at 1499 Mohawk Boulevard
on Oct. 21. VICTORIA STEPHENS/THE CHRONICLE
When Lioio fi rst started investigating in the ’80s, he compared
it to the Wild West. There was no licensing process and if some-
one wanted to become an investigator, they would just start
looking for work. Now, to get a license, a person must meet the
requirements, obtain 1,500 hours of experience as an appren-
tice, submit an application that includes around $600 in fees
and take the exam. After receiving their license, the investigator
will need 32 hours of continuing education, according to Private
Investigator EDU.
For Lioio, after he left the police force, he bounced around with
different jobs. He began working for an “ethically challenged”
PI, and found it harder to get paid. After that, he started process
serving with someone who rented a room out of his house. Again,
he struggled to get paid and when his boss fi nally skipped town
to California, Lioio took over the business. He continued process
serving and skip tracing – locating people – and then decided
he wanted to take those skill sets and go back to investigating.
With TV shows like “Magnum P.I.,” “The Rockford Files” and
“Veronica Mars,” there are multiple misconceptions the public
has about what goes into being a private investigator.
“They believe that we can do magic,” he said, “and that’s not
one of my talents.”
He noted that some of the things those fi ctional investigators
have done, particularly in the older shows, are now illegal. For
example, investigators can’t pretend to be someone else to get
information. Lioio said that in the past, he would get a clipboard
and stand outside a house he was targeting and ask the residents to
fi ll out a survey; in it, he would bury the questions that he wanted
to know the answers to.
“You can’t do that anymore,” he said. “It’s gotten harder to get
the information you used to get and I have to tell people, ‘I can’t
do that because it’s illegal.’”
Some of the other challenges he faces are Measure 11 cases –
which require mandatory minimum sentencing. He said that he
has seen clients with “very triable cases” take a plea deal because
they don’t want to take the risk of going to trial, being convicted
and sentenced according to Measure 11 guidelines.
“In many of those cases, I’ve believed that person wasn’t guilty
for what they were being accused of but just felt compelled to
take the deal,” he said.
Lioio said he prefers complex cases where he thinks the person
is innocent, but it’s going to be diffi cult and intellectually chal-
lenging for him. He said he enjoys getting to dissect the prose-
cution’s case and pull apart what the police did or didn’t do. He
said the most rewarding cases are when he gets a Not Guilty
verdict on someone who wasn’t guilty, or when he can sweep
away some charges that were “grossly overcharged on the fl im-
siest of technicalities.”
As a defense investigator, that doesn’t mean that all of his
clients are innocent, but Lioio said that he has a job to do – the
same way the prosecution and police have theirs.
“We have a job to do. It is to defend the constitutional rights
of any accused, whether they did it or not, and hold the state to
its requirement to prove the allegations,” he explained. “Some
people beat the charges even though they did it, and I don’t think
that’s good, but I don’t have a problem that I did my job, and
perhaps if the police did their job better than this guy wouldn’t
have walked.”
BILL continued from 13
a resource that will help with that, or occasionally someone
involved in the case will tell him where the other sources are.
One thing he particularly appreciates about the attorneys he
works with is that they aren’t afraid to go to trial; however, he
noted that the court system isn’t built on everyone taking their
cases to trial, due to the volume of cases.
“The prejudice of the system is to plead them out and get them
out of the stack,” he said.
The court system is an imperfect one, Lioio said, and it can
be easy for people involved to get into ruts and become more
jaded over time.
“Working in the court system, you see a steady stream of
people not having their best day – a litany of tragedies and grim-
ness. Even though we like to say it doesn’t affect us, it does. It
grinds slowly away on everyone who works in the system. If
you’ve been doing it for as long as I have, some of that abrasion
is getting down to the bone. A lot of times it’s not as fun as it
used to be.”
He added that depending on the circumstances of a case or
court experience, it can beg the question: Why keep doing this?
Then an interesting and challenging case will come up, and it will
suck him back in. By next summer, he wants to stop being a full-
time investigator and only focus on those cases that interest him.
“I have a hard time saying no to people I’ve worked with for
years,” he said. “I can tell I’m getting overloaded, but then I’m
needed and it’s hard to turn down.”
Lioio can work up to 13 or 14 cases at one time. He added that
there was a shortage of investigators in recent years, but now
more people are joining the fi eld.
Halloween Wreath
Workshop
When- Oct 12th 4p-6p
Where- Crema & Bloom
RESALE BOUTIQUE
1918 Marcola Rd. • Springfield
4245 Franklin Blvd Eugene, Oregon
Thursday thru Saturday 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Support Volunteers In Medicine ...
do your shopping with us!
*All appetizers, drinks
and materials provided :)
Grab your friends and get
into the Halloween spirit!
Come to Crema & Bloom for an
evening of drinks, appetizers
and Halloween Wreath Making
Price
55
Please call 541-485-8153 to register, space is limited!
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