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Volume XLIV
‘City of Roses’
‘Dear White People’
In Oregon, flu
considered more
o f a risk
Long awaited movie
on being a black
face in a white place
See Local News, page 3
See Metro, page 11
vyww.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 22, 2014
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Established in 1970
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photo by
community service
C olin S taub /P ortland O bserver contributor
Port/and State Universitystudent group representatives and a PSU professor are leading the opposition to a proposal to deputize campus police. Pictured (from left) are
o f the Black s 'tu d e m U n io n '^ for Nonvlolence’ Tom Hastmgs o f PSU's conflict resolution program; Leona Kindermann o f the PSU Student Union; and Deyalo Bennette
9
,
PSU Considers Armed Police Force
Students and activists raise
concerns as decision nears
C olin S taub
P ortland O bserver contributor
by
Portland State University could soon see the addition of
armed police officers patrolling its campus.
A deputized police force for Portland’s major university
is a proposal that’s drawing fierce opposition from some
PSU’s student groups, professors and civil rights activists,
especially in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown in
Ferguson, Mo., as well as the history of numerous local
Portland police shootings.
PSU’s board of trustees, a citizen board which is in its first
full year of governing the university, will soon vote on the
plans.
Last fall a task force assigned to study and make recom
mendations on Campus police came to the conclusion that
PSU needs fully-sworn police officers on campus. This could
come about in two ways, said the task force: Either contract
with an outside agency that can provide police officers, or
transition PSU’s existing public safety office into a campus
police department.
The university initially reached out to the Oregon State
Police, Portland Police and Oregon H ealth Science
University’s new deputized police force. All three declined
to contract out with PSU, so the university began to inves
tigate deputizing its own public safety officers.
A campus police force would have a number of effects. It
would double the number of officers on campus to about 30
or roughly one officer per 1,000 students. It would cost the
university roughly $ 1.5 million.
If approved, the proposal would expand officers’ jurisdic
tion, which is complicated on a large urban campus like PSU.
The area encompassing the campus is made up of a combi
nation of university-owned, public, and private property.
Currently officers have jurisdiction limited to PSU property.
“If there’s a fight outside the Cheerful Tortoise [a bar one
block off PSU property], campus officers can’t intervene,”
said Scott Gallagher, director of communications at PSU.
“It’s kind of hard to say, ‘Hey, can we move this fight across
the street so our officers can handle it?” ’
The move would expand officers’ authority, giving them
the ability to apply for search warrants, hold people for
mental health reasons, and cite people for violations.
It would also arm campus police officers with firearms,
which is one of the more controversial points of the issue.
The task force cited a potential active shooter situation as
a reason for arming campus police. The current public safety
office “has no capacity to respond to and disrupt an active
shooter and must rely on the response of the Portland Police
Bureau,” said the task force.
While campus officers generally have a response time of
around two minutes, it can take Portland Police up to 20 minutes
to respond, depending on prioritization, Gallagher said.
A strong opponent to an armed police force on campus is
Tom Hastings, a professor in PSU’s Conflict Resolution
continued
on page 20