THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021 A5
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Make Bend Police’s
bodycams a success
B
end Police Chief Mike Krantz outlined at Wednesday
night’s Bend City Council meeting the nine rules that
will guide his officers in when they need to switch on
bodycams. Briefly, they are:
1. When there is reasonable suspi-
cion or probable cause of a crime or
violation.
2. All enforcement and investi-
gative contacts, including stops and
field interviews.
3. Contacts with individuals be-
lieved to be suicidal.
4. All calls when an officer be-
lieves there is a mental illness or
mental health crisis.
5. Traffic contacts.
6. Officer-initiated investigation
or enforcement.
7. Forced entry.
8. Situations that become
adversarial.
9. Searches, consensual or
warrantless.
Some are mandated under state
law. And there may be other times
when officers will switch them on.
The Bend City Council approved
the purchase of bodycams, software,
training and storage on Wednesday
night.
We don’t have a copy of the entire
policy. It apparently runs some 20
pages. The department does post its
policies online. That’s important. This
one will be up as soon as it is finalized,
the department assured us Thursday.
An issue that has come up in
other communities is how swiftly
police release bodycam videos, par-
ticularly when it may present police
officers or their department in an
unfavorable light. There are wrench-
ing examples. For instance, it took
police 13 months to release video
of a police shooting in Chicago. A
judge had to order the release. The
dashcam recording showed a white
Bodycams or dashcams are
limited tools. They don’t show
everything. They show some
things officers do not see. Officers
can see things not revealed by
a recording. But the power of
the technology is that it should
help the public understand
what happened, so people can
make a better decision about
if the department is acting
appropriately.
officer shooting Laquan McDonald,
a Black teenager, 16 times. The of-
ficer was later convicted of murder.
We aren’t bringing that up because
we believe that sort of delay will hap-
pen here. Let’s ensure it doesn’t.
Bend Police will not be able to re-
lease videos as soon as they get a re-
quest. Oregon law has prohibitions
about releasing medical information
and other privacy considerations.
Videos must be reviewed and some
portions may be redacted.
Bodycams or dashcams are lim-
ited tools. They don’t show every-
thing. They show some things of-
ficers do not see. Officers can see
things not revealed by a recording.
But the power of the technology is
that it should help the public under-
stand what happened, so people can
make a better decision about if the
department is acting appropriately.
Incoming superintendent
in Bend does a bit extra
T
he incoming superintendent
for Bend-La Pine Schools,
Steve Cook, has a podcast:
The Sup is on.
Clever title.
He’s the superintendent of the
Coeur d‘Alene Public Schools in
Northern Idaho. We listened to
some snippets of several and found
one intriguing from 2020 on draw-
ing new boundaries for the district
about magnet schools. The Bend
district and Bend parents have faced
similar concerns about the challenge
of finding the right balance for who
can attend. Should students who live
near get a better chance? How about
students with a sibling already in
the school? What sort of disparities
does the selection process create or
reinforce?
Cook’s approach in these pod-
casts is to share information. He
isn’t spouting off his opinions. He
takes on a topic that he knows will
Cook’s approach in these
podcasts is to share information.
He isn’t spouting off his opinions.
He takes on a topic that he
knows will be important to
the community — or should
be — and tries to create more
understanding by interviewing
teachers and staff members.
be important to the community —
or should be — and tries to create
more understanding by interviewing
teachers and staff members.
We don’t know if he will be able to
continue it here. But it is a good sig-
nal that he is willing to go above and
beyond to ensure parents and com-
munity members know what’s going
on in the school district.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
Every year is a drought year
for the Deschutes River
BY TOD HEISLER
S
aturday’s Bulletin article titled
“Deschutes River level to rise as
irrigation season begins” was
misleading on many fronts. It may be
true that the river upstream of Bend
begins to transform from a dewatered
river to one of modest flows in early
April.
However, the opposite occurs in the
Deschutes River downstream of Bend.
Flows in this reach drop precipitously
each spring when irrigation districts
begin diverting 90% of the river into
their canals. The river upstream of
Bend suffers a similar fate in No-
vember each year when flows below
Wickiup Dam are reduced by 93%.
Every year is a drought year for the
Deschutes River below the dam and
irrigation diversions.
The river rises in April when irri-
gation season begins, and water in
Wickiup Reservoir is released, but
the flow of 375 cubic feet per second
(identified in Saturday’s article) is well
below what is needed for our wildlife
to survive. For example, the Oregon
spotted frog during breeding season
needs a minimum of 800 cfs in the
reach below Wickiup Dam. The 375
cfs flow seems to be motivated more
by irrigation demands and the fact
that Wickiup is at an historic low level
than it is for the health of the wetland
habitat.
GUEST COLUMN
Oregon Water
Resources Depart-
ment suggested that
“pushing too much
water down the river
at once can damage
spotted frog breed-
Heisler
ing habitat,” which
is misleading and
counter to the biological opinion
completed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service (USFWS) last December. It
says this about the river’s current state.
“In the spring prior to irrigation sea-
son flow releases, spotted frogs breed
in shallow water that is unvegetated.
Egg masses are exposed to wind and
high water temperatures in the shal-
low water. Adult breeding frogs are
at risk of predation by herons and
raccoons. The water’s edge does not
reach the vegetation (where the frogs
want to breed) until approximately
800 cfs.” This means that the 375 cfs
has no chance to create suitable breed-
ing habitat for frogs because it is too
low, not too high.
Again, the USFWS biological opin-
ion concurs. “Flow releases from
Wickiup Dam in early April have the
potential to improve breeding habitat
but the flows are often not sufficient
to provide for shallow water areas in
contact with emergent vegetation.
However, when the timing of flow
releases is too late, weeks after the
hatching of spotted frog eggs, emerg-
ing tadpoles are not likely to be within
emergent vegetation and are at a high
risk of predation.”
It is clear that in many parts of the
Deschutes River, the Oregon spotted
frog needs flows of 800 cfs to reach
suitable breeding habitat.
The recently approved Habitat
Conservation Plan limits flows to 600
cfs in March when breeding season
starts and allows for flows as low as
400 cfs in an adaptive management
arrangement. Only in April are flows
allowed to reach 800 cfs, the mini-
mum flow needed to reach wetland
vegetation.
As Saturday’s article suggests, the
river is rising but not fast enough or
with the right timing to assure suit-
able breeding habitat for the Oregon
spotted frog. We have waited for over
a decade for the Habitat Conserva-
tion Plan to address the most urgent
problems facing our river caused by
irrigation management. The plan was
approved late last year, but it is already
showing its incapability to restore
flows in the river to support the fish,
wildlife and aquatic species of our
wild and scenic river.
Tod Heisler is director of the rivers program
at Central Oregon LandWatch.
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Removing parking requirements is a solution, not a problem
BY DAVID WELTON
B
end faces many difficulties,
from increasing homelessness
driven by unattainable hous-
ing prices, to climate change, which
threatens the forests and wild lands
that surround our town. The proposal
to remove government regulation
for the precise number of car storage
units that each home and business
must provide is not, however, an ac-
tual problem. Indeed, it’s part of the
solution.
Let’s be clear: no one is going to
take your parking away. You can still
purchase a house with a three-car ga-
rage and a big driveway if you want.
Walmart and Costco aren’t going to
get rid of their parking lots. Markets
aren’t the solution to all our problems
— we would not leave food safety
purely to the market for instance —
but they work well for deciding things
like how many Mexican restaurants
Bend should have vs. how many Thai
or Italian places. Just because there are
no parking minimums does not mean
new housing will not have any park-
ing. People purchasing homes will still
want it in many cases, and will seek
out those housing situations that meet
their needs. Those who prefer lower
housing costs or closer amenities in
a more walkable neighborhood with
less parking would be free to choose
that, something the city of Bend cur-
rently prevents.
Bend is very diverse: What works
well for one building or area may not
work elsewhere. The “right” amount
of parking for a condo or town home
close to downtown is different than
what’s right for a large family living
further out to the southeast. Trying
GUEST COLUMN
to manage a city as diverse as Bend
with blanket policies is a recipe for
failure and inefficiency. Allowing peo-
ple to make their own decisions about
the amount of parking is a better ap-
proach. Some people want to park an
RV and several trucks on their land —
others just need room for one Prius.
Some 5% of people in the city have no
car and would benefit from not being
forced to pay for a spot to keep some-
thing they don’t own. With the cost
of a spot running potentially north of
$10,000 (land in Bend is expensive),
that could make or break some bud-
gets.
Historically, Bend had no parking
minimums, and those pre-WWII
parts of town are quite desirable. Look
at the price of housing there: it’s not
cheap. If it were such a terrible area
because it’s “underparked” compared
to the rest of Bend, the prices would
be lower. It turns out that people are
willing to pay a premium to live in a
walkable, human-scale area that’s very
central.
The biggest concern with getting
the city out of the parking business is
that, sans government mandates, peo-
ple will park along the public roads
— but that’s a minor problem. Many
in Bend face weighty decisions like
whether they can afford to live here at
all, and where they might move. The
roads where “excess” cars might be
parked are public roads that belong
to all of us; they are not guaranteed
free parking for the adjacent home-
owner. And most already have cars
parked along them. If there are too
many cars along a road to navigate
safely, the city can target that specific
road for changes. Local solutions for
local problems, rather than citywide.
In many cases the reality is that hav-
ing cars parked along streets has been
shown to calm traffic, keeping speeds
in residential neighborhoods lower
and safer.
Eliminating parking minimums
will not mean much change for most
people. They’ll be able to keep buying
housing with parking if that’s what
they prefer. This policy won’t make
Bend suddenly affordable. But it will
help some people, and it’s the right
policy for a more flexible city in the
future. It puts Bend in a position to
deal with a changing world and adapt
on an individual level as best we see
fit.
David Welton lives in Bend.