Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 2015)
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 FROM PAGE A1 POLICE: continued from page A1 said. “There’s good days. There’s bad days, but for the most part, it’s a fun job. There’s always some- thing different.” Johnson said the offi- cers patrol the streets and respond to calls but also complete full investiga- tions in some cases. “I give a lot of kudos to rural patrol departments just because of the aspect that the rural patrol guys do a lot of stuff from the start of the case to the fin- ish of the case,” he said. “A lot of the big cities, the patrol guys, they’re going from call to call to call, and they don’t get a lot of time to investigate. It’s passed on to the de- tectives almost immedi- ately, usually no matter what the case (is).” ADMINISTRATIVE Edmiston said the patrol division is the “backbone” of any po- lice department, but other officers perform critical services to support the street units. Eynon has been in law enforcement for 25 years. He transferred to HPD 10 years ago and has been a captain for about three years. He said he enjoys the variety he encounters as administrative captain. “It’s interesting be- cause I have so much di- versity in the people that I supervise and the divi- sions that I supervise,” he said. “That definitely keeps me on top of my game. I have to know a lot of different jobs. My typical day can vary a lot. It really depends. If my detectives are working on a major case, then often my day will involve a lot of that.” Eynon supervises two general detectives and a narcotics detective. He said the patrol officers will usually take the ini- tial reports on major crimes, including sex of- fenses and child abuse, but the detectives gener- ally take over those in- vestigations. “It’s just not feasible for patrol guys to go out and follow up,” he said. “It’s actually because of the logistics of trying to work those kinds of cases when you are on a patrol shift and getting more calls coming in all the time. The detectives really just take it when it starts turning into lots of people to go track down and talk to.” Eynon said he provides guidance to the officers who serve under him but is also responsible for the mundane aspects of man- agement. “There is a lot of paper- work involved, particular- ly in the administrative end for us (captains),” he said. WHY BE AN OFFICER? Eynon and Johnson both said most people be- come police officers out of a desire to serve. Eynon said some peo- ple may join the profes- sion “for ego reasons” or to seek an adrenaline rush, but they “generally don’t last” in law enforce- ment. “No matter what peo- ple think, it doesn’t pro- vide enough excitement for people that got into it for that reason to sustain them,” he said. “We have lots and lots of hours of sheer boredom and mo- notony intertwined with minutes of shock and awe.” Johnson said the con- stant variation in inten- sity can be a difficult to handle. “The patrol guys are on a wave,” he said. “They’ll go completely to the highest adrenaline to drop off to completely nothing. It will wear on you after a while, physically, men- tally.” Both captains, howev- er, said they enjoyed the job — most days. “I think it’s a noble profession,” Eynon said. ³,W FDQ EH D GLI¿FXOW SUR- fession. Depending on the way things are going during the times, our job FDQEHGLI¿FXOWDQGVRPH- times our job can be a little easier path depending on what’s going on in the lat- est media. “I think most people are still getting into it for the right reasons, at least our people that we’ve hired,” he added. “Most of those people have not gotten into it because they thought they’d look pretty sexy in a blueberry uniform.” SEAN HART PHOTO Operations Capt. Darryl Johnson works at his desk at Hermiston Police Depart- ment. Johnson oversees the patrol divi- sion — four sergeants who oversee four corporals and eight ofÀcers — and sup- port services, including a two-ofÀcer street crime team and seven reserve ofÀcers.