KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
THurSdAY, JANuArY 20, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
New metric
may be key
to OSP’s
staffing
P
roviding the right number of law
enforcement officers can be as
important and difficult a decision as
providing the right kind of law enforcement
services.
How do you get the number of police
right? Is there some sort of objective stan-
dard?
A number that comes up repeatedly
is patrol officers per capita. For instance
in 2020, the Oregon State Police Officers
Association proposed a bill that would have
required the state police to have at least 15
patrol troopers per 100,000 Oregonians. At
the time there were just eight troopers per
100,000 residents. Boosting it to 15 would
have put Oregon about in the middle of the
pack nationally and helped ensure better
statewide coverage.
The bill died in committee.
Oregon State Police no longer provides
24-hour coverage across Oregon. Wildfires,
protests and the pandemic have stretched
its coverage even further. OSP doesn’t just
patrol state highways. It investigates crimes,
assists local police, regulates gaming and
enforces fire codes, fish and game regula-
tions and more. Oregon’s population also
has grown while the number of troopers
has shrunk. When Oregon had 2.6 million
people in 1980, it had 665 troopers. Now
Oregon’s population is more than 4 million
and the number of authorized troopers is 459.
Oregon State Police traditionally have
used that kind of troopers-per-capita anal-
ysis to determine its staffing needs. A new
Oregon Secretary of State audit recommends
the OSP adopt a new more comprehensive
analysis to determine its staffing levels than
per capita.
OSP does look at issues beyond per
capita levels of troopers. It is concerned
about workload. It is concerned about officer
safety. But when it presents arguments to the
Legislature about staffing levels, it empha-
sizes per capita and comparisons to other
states.
The audit recommends, in part, an
approach based on workload analysis.
OSP generally agreed with that recom-
mendation. It did point out the weakness of
a time-based workload analysis is assum-
ing calls for service are equal. OSP may try
to supplement workload analysis with more
qualitative approaches, such as patrol area
size, proactive enforcement time and more.
The Oregon State Police’s budget and
staff challenges have long been a concern of
the OSP and legislators. If a workload analy-
sis gets the state closer to better answers, we
are all for it.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily that
of the East Oregonian.
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of 400 words or less on public issues and public
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SEND LETTERS TO:
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or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
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Many challenges with winter weather
LARRY
NIERENBERG
EYE TO THE SKY
hen it comes to precipita-
tion in the winter, the most
common and familiar type is
snow. However, many may have expe-
rienced sleet or freezing rain. What
exactly is the difference between all the
different types of wintry precipitation
and how are they formed?
It is much easier to forecast precipita-
tion in the spring and fall, as the precip-
itation type usually will be rain, and in
the summer, of course, the biggest chal-
lenge is rain versus thunderstorms. In
the winter, there can be varied precipita-
tion types, sometimes occurring within
the same storm system. The precipita-
tion type also can vary by location and
elevation.
Many people do not realize that even
on the hottest summer day, precipita-
tion, when it begins falling, is frozen.
That is because of the cold temperatures
of the atmosphere at the level of the
cloud. Nonetheless, the falling precip-
itation quickly encounters warm air
and turns to liquid, falling as rain. In
the winter, the colder temperatures are
lower in the atmosphere, but for the sake
of this article, if the temperature from
the base of the cloud to the ground is
above 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the precip-
itation will fall as rain. If the tempera-
ture from the base of the cloud to the
W
ground is below freezing, the precipita-
tion will fall as snow.
These definitions are fairly straight-
forward to understand. However, when
discussing sleet and freezing rain, the
definitions (as well as the meteorology)
are a bit more muddled.
If the temperature within the cloud,
or between the cloud and the ground is
above freezing, a water droplet will start
off as liquid. Assuming the tempera-
ture very close to the surface is below
freezing, say 28 degrees, that liquid
water droplet will freeze on contact with
the ground, your car or whatever it hits.
This is exactly what freezing rain is …
liquid rain that freezes on contact and
becomes ice. Freezing rain often is the
worst possible precipitation type to get
around in, as there is very little, if any,
traction for tires or human feet on ice. If
there is enough ice, significant damage
to trees and power lines can occur, but
even a little can be disruptive. Just a
little ice is enough to cause problems on
roads and sidewalks and make driving
more difficult, for example.
Freezing rain is not as common,
but can occur, especially during night
time hours and in the lower elevation
locations of southeastern Washington
and Northeastern Oregon, such as the
Columbia Basin, Yakima Valley, Kitti-
tas Valley and Blue Mountain foothills.
This puts some of our more populated
areas, including Pendleton, Hermiston,
the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla and Yakima
in at least some threat for freezing rain
events. If temperatures warm enough
during the day, freezing rain changes to
liquid rain.
Sleet starts off the same way as
freezing rain. The same water drop falls
as above, but it encounters a deeper,
sub-freezing layer, so the water droplet
freezes and forms an ice pellet above the
ground and then hits the ground. Sleet
often can look like snow because the ice
pellet is white. However, unlike snow,
sleet makes noise when it hits some-
thing.
Across Northeastern Oregon and
southeastern Washington, due to the
elevation changes, it is possible to get
snow or sleet further north and at higher
elevations and rain or freezing rain
south or in the valleys … within the
same system, depending on the individ-
ual storm. Freezing rain in the moun-
tains is not as common, though it does
happen from time to time. Of course, if
conditions are cold enough, everyone
will get snow no matter the location or
elevation.
There are many challenges with
winter weather and determining precip-
itation type is one of them, whereas in
the warm season, we know it always
will be rain. No matter the type of
wintry precipitation we receive, be
it snow, sleet, or freezing rain, there
are usually some impacts, even if the
amounts are light.
———
Larry Nierenberg is a senior fore-
caster for the National Weather Service
in Pendleton. Nierenberg leads National
Weather Service community outreach
and hazardous weather preparedness
and resiliency programs.
Bentz’s word that the Center for Tech and
Civic Life acted to influence people to
vote a certain way or for election workers
to swing the election one way or another.
Next, I found an article from another
organization that calls itself 2022 Influ-
ence Watch that has much informa-
tion about what the Center for Tech and
Civic Life has done. If the information is
correct, it is specific as to where funding
went to electoral offices around the coun-
try. I did not see any proof in their arti-
cle that proves the CTCL is in any way
partisan. My problem with this article
is that it starts out by naming the Center
for Tech and Civic Life as a “left-wing”
group.
There are several reasons I disagree
with Mr. Bentz. One, the Federalist
is, and always has been, a mouthpiece
for the republican Party. Two, I find it
illogical to infer that the Center for Tech
and Civic Life turned the election in
favor of President Joe Biden. The Center
provided information to election workers
about doing their job fairly and effec-
tively. One would expect the influence
of the CTCL would cause the election
to be conducted fairly and effectively.
It is not logical to say President donald
Trump lost just because of the training
given. Anyone can check the content of
the training to discern whether it favored
any candidate.
My conclusions are: Giving a person
or group a name, such as “left-wing”
or “right-wing” does not provide the
validity or non-validity of that person
or group. “Correlation does not equal
causation” is still the case in any logical
argument. I would also infer that Mr.
Bentz believes that any election is fraud-
ulent in which his candidate is not the
victor.
Evelyn Swart
Joseph
YOUR VIEWS
Facts don’t back Bentz’s
claim that 2020 election
was ‘bought’
Oregon’s district 2 rep. Clifford
Bentz, who represents a grand slice of
Oregon, is telling us, according to EO
Media Group, that the 2020 election was
fraudulent. He cites information written
in the Federalist that a group of people
who had the money to do so, donated
funds to the Center for Tech and Civic
Life.
First, The Center for Tech and Civic
Life is an organization of and for elec-
tion workers across the country. It offers
courses for how to conduct safe and
secure elections. Anyone can go into
their website and check out the courses
they offer for election workers, includ-
ing the content of the courses. I suggest
everyone do so before accepting Mr.