Diane Dietz has an article in the RG here, with a link to a very interesting Atlantic piece here.
Presumably Jamie Moffitt will be starting the searches to replace UO Chief Carolyn McDermed and other top officers soon, unless President Schill simply dissolves the UOPD and goes back to the more sensible and much cheaper public safety model, with police services contracted from the Eugene PD. After a rocky start 5-10 years ago, the EPD now seems to be doing quite well with its campus area party patrols, for example.
I completely agree. Let’s dissolve the F. Dyke legacy and get back to a much more sensible and safer policing model.
“Universities are unique communities,” said Frances Dyke, who oversees campus security as vice president for finance and administration. “Because of the high number of students and the demographics of students, it’s a specialization. And because we’re a university, we’re more likely to be able to craft our public safety office in a way that meets our special needs.”
Yeah, how’s that working out?
The campus police department carries the highest liability of any other department on campus. If you think the over $700,000 payout is bad with more being paid out again soon, just wait until they shoot someone! If the campus police chief can’t manage her employees and screws up this bad just think how she must manage her gun toting employees! She and the rest need to go.
If EPD really wanted to be the police agency for campus you think they would have put up a fight in the first place. Obviously EPD doesn’t want the position because the members of the campus community want a response from a police force that they would not get from EPD.
Also might want to check the hypocritical views here. Even in the UO Matters article it says” After a rocky start 5-10 years ago, the EPD now seems to be doing quite well with its campus area party patrols, for example,” but after a few years, where the UOPD has not even been up to full staffing you are ready to wash it away without a chance to get going.
At this point it is very difficult to see what benefits the UOPD police initiative has brought to the campus community. The officers are more isolated than ever. And to judge by the ‘bowl of dicks’ hardly in a congenial state of mind to support the academic side. And the potential liabilities, as noted above, are considerable. Let’s phase out this experiment.