MARCH 25, 2022, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
KPD: ‘It became kind of
theme in the industry. ’
Continued from page A1
“It’s all about having the right
people at the right places, at the
right time,” said Keizer Patrol
Lieutenant Andrew Copeland. “We
all work together and brief together
in the morning.”
With four separate shifts of
patrol officers, it’s easy for details
to get lost or forgotten from one
shift to the next, but POP creates a
structure to address that.
“Our CRU unit, headed by
Sergeant Darsy Olafson works with
our Crime Analyst Cara Steele –
they work issues right alongside the
detectives and patrol officers.”
Everyone getting in the same
room and sharing information every
morning creates a heightened read-
iness for KPD.
“For example, a night shift officer
says ‘Hey, I had contact with this
specific person,’ then the day-shift
patrol officer says ‘Didn’t we just
talk about him?’ and then someone
from our CRU says 'Oh yeah, he’s
been here, here and here and we’ve
been tracking him because he’s one
of our problem-people,' and they
put a packet together for a District
Attorney (DA). Then the parole and
probation officer, who also work out
of our office, says ‘That’s so-and-so,
and I know who the parole officer
is and I can put you in contact with
them.’ And then code enforcement
is in there saying ‘How can I help?’
Then it’s like ‘Listen, we’re going to
go execute a search warrant, why
don’t you come along with us.’ All
of this happens kind of organically
at the briefings every morning.”
Olafson, a long-time KPD vet-
eran and currently leading the CRU,
cited other examples of how POP
has improved their ability to fight
crime.
“One of the bigger ones that we
didn’t realize we were doing POP
until a couple of years later was we
were having enclosed trailers, exca-
vators, vehicles stolen throughout
the city,” said Olafson, “These brief-
ings started to highlight the idea
that it was a very specific color and
make of (the perpetrator’s) vehicle,
and we started to home in on it,
working with traffic and motors.”
Olafson said the communication
and cooperation enabled by the POP
structure within the department
and other city and county agencies
was the primary reason they recov-
ered more than 500 pieces of stolen
property from that crime ring, and
has greatly contributed to overall
crime reduction in the city.
“One little piece of subtle nuance
in a patrol guy’s day can be the
linchpin for us putting together an
entire case,” he said.
“It really turned the whole
agency into a household instead of
a neighborhood,” said Teague. “In a
neighborhood, you have a problem
and you might call your neighbor
down the street. In a household,
you know everybody’s problems –
it’s much more intimate.”
POP isn’t just improving com-
munication, though – it involves a
great deal of analysis, as well.
“[Cara Steele] is much more than
a number-cruncher,” said Teague.
“She takes an over-arching view of
the crime that is happening in the
city, and then tries to make some
analysis of that. We don’t have a
great deal of crime, comparatively,
so she works to get a subjective feel
for what’s happening and where
things might be happening next.”
According to Teague, Copeland
and Olafson, the POP program is
having a direct impact on the abil-
ity of Keizer’s officers to effectively
do their job and keep the commu-
nity safe.
“In the absence of the CRU and
the crime analyst, we would have
to staff up heavily and we would be
responding to crime without actu-
ally doing anything to prevent it.”
Upcoming political rally causes stir at city council meeting
BY CHARLES GLENN
Of the Keizertimes
Every Keizer city council meeting
provides time for the public to speak
to the council about any issue, and
on Monday, March 21, a number of
local activists and residents took the
opportunity to voice their views on
the upcoming Reawaken America
tour slated for Volcanoes Stadium
on April 1.
The stadium is privately-owned,
which means the council has no
authority to prevent the event.
While most of the speakers acknowl-
edged this, many still want the city
to do more to prevent these kinds of
events, going forward.
The controversial rally will fea-
ture several speakers, including
former National Security Advisor
Mike Flynn and Mike Lindell, the
chief executive officer of MyPillow.
It was originally scheduled for the
Deschutes County Fair and Expo
Center in Redmond, Ore., but public
scrutiny surrounding the promotion
of election conspiracies, mandatory
mask-wearing, and the identity of
the some of the speakers – Flynn
was pardoned by former President
Trump for giving false information
to the FBI – led to the venue change.
The same kind of public scru-
tiny was on display at the Keizer
council meeting’s public testimony
on Monday. Some local and tribal
activists carried signs reading “I’m
white America’s nightmare” and
“End racism and white supremacy,”
spoke about how racism and white
supremacy are impacting their
communities.
While the tribal activists framed
the issue in terms of racism and
white supremacy, other speakers
objected to the rally on the basis that
it would cause a disruption in the
community and possibly violence.
Ron Bersin, Oregon Government
Ethics Commission executive direc-
tor, said the rally had a reputation
for violence and voiced displeasure
at the lease agreement between
the city and Volcanoes owner Jerry
Walker.
“I’m really disappointed in the
city,” said Bersin. “It seems like no
matter who wants to come into the
Volcanoes stadium, it’s up to the
Robert Edwards, right, of Salem appeared at the March 21 Keizer City Council meet-
BY CHARLES GLENN
ing with a group of local activists.
leasors to decide. So we have no way
of stopping, let’s say 5,000 Hell’s
Angels … or any other group that, I
think, just really isn’t in the Keizer
spirit.”
Bersin said he was expecting the
police department to be challenged
over the two days of the rally. Many
other speakers took time to voice
similar views for more than an hour
at the meeting.
Brandon Smith, of Salem, was one
of three people who spoke in favor
of the rally.