3/26/2012: From the RG:
The total legal costs — $419,000 — dwarf the $5,583 in damages that a jury awarded Schlossberg in January, after deciding unanimously that his constitutional rights were violated by Solesbee during a March 13, 2009, encounter in front of an Umpqua Bank branch in downtown Eugene.
Part of the cost of having a police force, as UO will soon learn. Meanwhile we’ve posted an ad for a new Police Captain:
Police Captain, Safe Campus TeamDepartment of Public SafetyOpen until filled; priority review of applications begins April 17, 2012
The University of Oregon in Eugene seeks an experienced, senior, commissioned law enforcement professional with superlative people skills and leadership ability to fill the position of Police Captain with the Safe Campus Team at the Department of Public Safety (UODPS).
Doesn’t sound cheap. And rumor has it they’ve also hired a $10,000 a month consultant. Meanwhile DPS Director Doug Tripp – already paid more than the Eugene police chief – is in Salem for 4 months, going through basic Oregon police academy training.
Frances Dyke told the campus – and Floyd Prozanski and the state legislature – that the conversion to sworn police would cost UO almost nothing. She lied. Will new UO CFO Jamie Moffitt come clean on this?
Is $3.2 million dollars spent after the fact For non-investigation a better option? Jerry Sandusky? Washington state $82 K for failure to report 2 rapes in 2007? Clery act of 1990: $27,500 per violation for failure to report incidents if the university is aware. Virginia Tech: $4 million to 2 families (later capped at $100,000), $55,000 fined for failure to report alerts to students in a timely manner just over 2 hrs later……, You want WHO to be responsible for these cases and notifications? Faculty union members? Eugene PD with no accountability for the fines? Administration? The best thing DPS can do is establish a very good transparent complaint and audit process for the police transition.
What is the cost of maintaining the status quo? Title 42 u.s. code 1983 lays out some pretty heavy legal problems and probable fines for the University if DPS fails to train its people. I think UO Matters is being fairly short sighted on the issue. The University wants more training for DPS but wants them to be powerless. You can’t have one without the other.
They’re going to be cops, which is probably the best case scenario given all the possible outcomes. It will cost, but probably less than doing nothing. Let it go.
You seem knowledgeable on this topic. DPS had lots of problems over the past 10 years, but I don’t recall them ever having to pay out damages anywhere close to this. If they did Melinda Grier hid it pretty well. Which is quite possible.
So do you know of any claims or settlements against DPS that might reinforce your argument that conversion to sworn police will reduce expensive legal costs and awards?