No guns yet

9/28/2010: In several recent posts I’ve said or implied that the Dyke-Tripp proposal is to create an armed UO police force. This is wrong, and an informed reader clarifies:

 … the proposal on the table is to have the DPS officers elevated to the status of police officers WITHOUT arming them with deadly force. In other words, the proposal for create a police force on campus is separate from the idea of arming them with guns and/or tasers.  If the current proposal to create a campus police force is approved, arming of the police force will occur only if a separate proposal is approved by the OUS Board (or a UO Board if the New Partnership Proposal is adopted). Either way, there are no  current plans to arm DPS officers with deadly force even if the Police Officer upgrade is granted by the state legislature.

Thanks. I assume this means they would get Tazers to go along with their 130MPH Police Interceptors. We still haven’t seen an explanation for the recent 110% increase in the DPS budget, or an estimate of the cost of the police force proposal, or an explanation for why it has risen to the top of UO’s legislative agenda, just behind the UO restructuring plan. This is not the place to be spending money or political capital.