5/26/2011: First it was Doug Tripp’s bomb-sniffing puppy. Now they’ve started the spin for a UO SWAT team. Mr. Roll delivers the fear in the ODE, without a hint of skepticism. Remarkable:
Campus shootings have become an increasing risk in recent years. They can happen at anytime, without warning, often resulting in significant loss of life.
Then there’s the risk of taking 6 years to finish, getting a shitty education, and not being able to find a job and repay your student loans. Safer to just stay home with the parents.
But if you do feel up for taking a chance and leaving Mom, where do you want your university to be spending your tuition money – professors or cops? UO’s administrators have made their own choice clear – the DPS budget has increased 110% in the past 5 years.
The Cat walks by the new Public Safety facility off Walnut and 14th Street every day. And counts the number of Public Safety vehicles parked there. The number ranges from 8 to 14, but frequently there are 12.
My recollection is that Public Safety used to have four or so Jeep type vehicles, and they were parked on 14th at Straub Hall.
The new vehicles consist of a mix of high end “police interceptors” clearly the perfect vehicle for apprehending social deviants, and larger SUV style vehicles for transporting all kinds of perps.
I think these officers would be much better informed about the university, its students and dangers if they spent more time WALKING a beat, talking to students and faculty and knowing their community.
The police interceptors, the weapons belts and the generally intimidating air of the new ‘public safety’ manifests itself as a prescription for confrontation between two separate communities. It is amazing to me that the administration promotes this policy, and that faculty and students seem not to care.
I too see that lot on a daily basis and it seems more and more and more “police” vehicles are in the lot. I’ve heard that public safety has also purchased more new vehicles and spent some absurd amount of money on some of those 4 wheeler all terrain vehicles. The spending to me appears to be ridiculous. How much was it to contract for services with the Eugene police? I am betting it is a lot less than 110% increase in spending. And how many directors does public safety need? The whole thing is utterly ridiculous.
And what is the motive to drive this whole police bill? Does Doug Trip get some sort of huge bonus if it becomes law? What is the real motivation here?
re you kidding!?
“But if you do feel up for taking a chance and leaving Mom, where do you want your university to be spending your tuition money – professors or cops? UO’s administrators have made their own choice clear.”
I find it amazing that you can really come out and say this… safety is paramount. You can’t put a value on someone’s life. I agree that academics need to be better funded at the UO, but with an increasing student population and more importantly an increasing resident student population more funding HAS to go to the safety of students. The UO can’t pour more money into DPS or another EPD contract, the only way to properly provide this service is through an police department that serves this campus, period. If UC Berkeley can see the light and manage with an armed, full-service police department then the UO can. It is time to join the 20th century… in the 21st.
Nobody is talking about putting a value on a life Doug. We’re talking about trading the cost of a very small increase in safety from the $1 million a year you are going to spend on armed sworn police against the benefits that $1 million would have produced if spent on the primary mission of UO: education and research.
As for “UC Berkeley does it so it must be good”. Berkeley spends many times what UO does on teaching and research – so, that must be good too.
Actually the argument this will result in a *decrease* in safety is strong – e.g. the UCF killing former DPS head Turkiewicz was involved in, or the recent accidental death of Eugene policeman Jerry Webber, etc.
One thing is certain – it will mean a big bump in salary and PERS benefits for DPS though.
Dog agrees with UOMatters – the DPS budget ought to scale with student population so a proportionate DPS budget increase is warranted. What is being proposed, however, is well beyond such a proportionate increase which the contributes to the less proportionate increase for education and research. This campus really does have a lot of self-interest groups who consistently claim their needs are above and beyond and more important than the central educational mission of the UO. Why these needs continue to trump our basic ones are very much beyond this old dog …
So Doug what kind of gun did you buy from SM Guns on River Road that you were telling everyone in the shop there that you needed a ‘duty weapon’ about a dozen times? I bet you were embarassed when they asked you where you worked and they reminded you that you are not a cop. This was in late January or early February. Care to comment? No? I wouldn’t comment either because that would just make you look very very bad especially if lawmakers decide that armed campus cops are not such a great idea after all. You must really really really really believe the bill will make to waste that much money on a gun. Did the school reimburse you for the gun?
All I know about DPS is that campus security assaulted a science graduate student last year as he was entering a building late at night to check on a lab experiment. Without warning, he was tackled and severely injured. Who would put guns in the hands of these kinds of fools?
Campus security pushed around a student and placed him in a wrestling hold and he was forced to pick up some litter. The student called the EPD to file a assault charge and the cops were going to arrest but decided to let campus security managers handle it. If anyone else did that to someone else they would of gone to jail. Where do we draw the line between having legit cops on campus and security thugs assaulting people?? Is the security guard putting wrestling holds on a student going to be made a cop??? wtf???????
I’m no economist, but I have heard of some economists employed to do just that – put a value on a human life. Yes it can be done. And I would agree with UOMatters – This is a gigantic boondoggle that NO one but Francis and Doug are pushing to have happen. Can we really afford this? Given the sorry state our lack of classroom space? Is this our biggest priority? Why is no one at the top even talking about building a classroom building? They got their video software and digital signage funded– all oh so important. And next our steroid infused campus police – but nary a square foot for an extra classroom. Kids your tuition dollars are being spent so wisely!