10/20/2011: VPFA Frances Dyke told the UO faculty, students, OUS – and perhaps also State Senator Floyd Prozanski and the state legislature – that conversion of DPS to a sworn, potentially armed UO campus police force was only going to cost $76,000. She told the ODE it might save $73,000. Apparently I’m not the only person who wonders if she was telling the truth. From a recent public records request:
Costs Associated with the Department of Public Safety
Requester: Bolt, Greg
Organization: The Register-Guard
Initial Request Date: 10/18/2011This is a request under the Oregon Public Records Law for the following information on the University of Oregon’s Department of Public Safety: -A detailed annual expenditure budget for the UO Department of Public Safety for each year from 2001 to 2011, inclusive, -The number of DPS employees by job title for each year from 2001 to 2011, inclusive, -Total department PERS costs for each year from 2001 to 2011, inclusive, -Current PERS cost for an individual employee with the job title of campus security/public safety officer, -Any expenditure budget estimates or projections for the budget years 2011-12 through 2016-17, -Any estimates or projections of the personnel costs (payroll, OPE) associated with hiring or appointing sworn police officers, -Projected or estimated pay scales for sworn police officers, -Total projected or estimated PERS contributions for a force of 26 sworn police officers, and -Projected or estimated PERS contribution for an individual employee with the job title of police officer.
Looks like someone is going to have a lot of explaining to do. There is no way this conversion will ever save the university money. How does replacing a position and increasing the pay 63% save money? It is a silly notion considering not only the pay but as well as the cost of………..
-equipment, including guns and cars
-liability, very high for cops
-PERS and IAP retirement for police
-medical, dental, vision
-overtime
This university does not need to have 26 cops. I am curious what percent this would represent compared to EPD. I am also curious as to how much it is to pay just the administrators. Anyone saying this will save money or anyone believing it is a fool. I would like to see how this nonsensical cost saving claim was reached.
Their budget DOUBLED in a mere 5 years???????? From job postings and other information the data suggest that the cost of around 95% of positions currently on the DPS organizational charts being filled would be about $3,533,000.00 yearly for base pay alone. Of that amount about $1,788,000.00 pays for administrators. $1,745,000.00 is for classified positions. This data does not include any cost for training, equipment or other expenditures. I follow this blog and this data does not reflect the total cost of 26 police officer base salaries. The key word to remember here is ‘base’ because this does not include retirement or other benefits or overtime accrual. Clearly this alleged cost saving or minimal cost claim is just that. Does someone in Johnson Hall think people can’t do basic math? This is outrageous.
They know we know math. But they think they can get away with anything.
And so far, they are right – they can. Lariviere just gave Dyke a fat raise, and then hired Moffitt for even more. Does anyone think Dyke won’t now get a 0.5 FTE sinecure, for $124,000, for 5 years? $600,000. Who’s got that much in their TIAA-CREF?
We are smart, but the dummies are going home with the money – not us. So how smart are we, really?
For years UO contracted with Eugene for EPD gun toting cops to assist DPS on campus. As I recall, the cost was around $500,000/year and included a sergeant (about 0.5-FTE) and some number of patrol cops. However, they mostly kept a couple of chairs warm in their little EPD office inside DPS rather than working out on campus. As time went on and the costs went up with inflation, the number of EPD FTEs probably decreased to keep UO’s cost more/less constant over time. No doubt the “savings” Ms Dyke talks about are based on no longer paying Eugene about $500K/year for EPD cops. Still, this doesn’t pencil out when including all the salary, benefit, equipment, training, liability and overhead costs. There’s a huge future liability cost when some student gets injured or killed down the road at the hands of a DPS cop. Having armed cops dealing with students over life style infractions like MIP, dope, etc can quickly escalate into something a lot more serious… Like the Chinese student that got tazed by an EPD cop in the student’s newly rented apartment a year or so ago, after falsely being accused of trespassing. Misunderstandings and a smart-ass attitude towards authority can have serious consequences when guns are involved. And the cops always get a free pass because all they have to say is “I thought he was reaching for a gun and I feared for my life, so I shot him…” Which is what happened with the Chinese student, except the cop used a Tazer instead of a gun.
Don’t forget to add in how much tazers are and how much the lawsuits that come with them are. Maybe Frohnmeyer or Grier can represent DPS? Just a thought.
All of the OUS defined peers for the UO have sworn police,(our inevitable future). The UW PD org chart must be inspirational to Tripp, Dyke, et al.
http://www.washington.edu/admin/police/OrgChartMay09.pdf
Glad our defined peers have cops. Doesn’t mean we need to do the same here.