Supporting Public Safety
NEW! 4-27-08
We CAN turn around a troubled public safety environment in Eugene. Eugene’s individual and collective safety—in our homes, schools and community—is job one for local government. Eugene has one of the worst property crime rates in the nation—caused primarily by extreme personnel and overall funding deficiencies. We will need to take a regional, cooperative approach to solving the problem because our police department is just one cog in a criminal justice system that includes all of Lane County. Details on my position appear below.
A. Priority One: Correcting our Staff Deficiencies.
Having enough police officers on patrol is critical to maintain an acceptable level of safety in
our homes, schools and neighborhoods. An independent study suggests that we need to
significantly increase the number of employed officers if we are to properly fulfill our mandate
to provide public safety within the community.
The Magellan Research Corporation concludes that Eugene’s public safety staff shortage
would require a 43.5% increase in authorized personnel just to meet a BASIC service level.
To meet a TYPICAL COMMUNITY policing level would require a 115.2% increase.
Deficiencies affect all personnel categories, from patrol officers and investigators to detectives.
B. Impact of Deficiencies: Extremely High Crime Rates.
Property crime rates in Eugene are among the worst in the nation. The Magellan study
describes the rates of burglary and auto theft in Eugene as “alarmingly high” for a city of our
size. The National Insurance Crime Bureau puts Eugene-Springfield on a list of the worst
metro areas for auto theft in the nation—with a rate of nearly 4.9 cars and trucks stolen every
day. This rate is not only worse than Portland or Denver, but also worse than every metro area
in all of New York and New Jersey.
In a mid-April article published in the Register-Guard, an EPD analyst is quoted as saying it is
“odd” that our rates are as “high as the rate in port cities, where there is an active trade in
stolen vehicles being shipped out of the country.” The analyst added that Eugene “doesn’t
even have the excuse of an illicit export business.”
Our physical location adds another troubling perspective to these statistics. The city of Eugene
is fairly remote—not adjacent to any large metropolitan area—which usually feeds crime
statistics.
Why is our problem so severe? I believe our property crime problem is the natural and serious
consequence of staff and funding deficiencies in our police department locally, and in the
county. Lack of staffing has meant that only about 10% of thieves have been caught and
prosecuted over the last 10 years. Inadequate support for public safety will become an
increasingly serious obstacle to future livability if the situation is not corrected.
C. Funding Levels Stagnant in Lane County for 10 Years.
Crime is a regional problem. Eugene has a local police department, but our overall criminal
justice system has a series of component parts: police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges,
jail facilities, supervision for both adults and juveniles, treatment and rehabilitation services.
The Magellan study points out difficulties within the system that affect Eugene: “The District
Attorney’s Office is under-funded and under-staffed, the jail system is overcrowded resulting in
property crime offenders not being held for any length of time, and the general lack of police
presence and deterrence as a result, again, of under-funding and under-staffing of EPD,
all promote the ineffectiveness of crime prevention and crime deterrence.”
The study also points out that overall funding for “essential criminal justice services” over the
last 10 years has remained level, while the population in Lane County and Eugene have both
increased.
Addressing our public safety problem will require cooperation with government partners. We
will have to mend some strained relationships that have been caused by our current mayor
over the past three years. But it is essential to work with Lane County, Springfield and other
towns in our region to make sure that all the components of the criminal justice system are
working to keep us safe. Criminals don’t respect our city limits. We must work effectively with
other governments to ensure Eugene’s safety.
D. Public Safety in our Schools.
Public safety for educational facilities includes the city’s schools, as well as the University of
Oregon. Our school public safety resources are especially impacted by staff shortages. The
Magellan study concludes that our schools team should have twice the officers to provide
basic service, and three times the officers to meet typical community standards for a city of
our size.
Another educational priority for me would be to help the Eugene Police Department and patrol
officers at the University of Oregon do a better job of working together for a safer campus and
university area. The Magellan report shows us that U of O has the lowest number of assigned
community officers of any school in the PAC-10—and only half of the number assigned by
Corvallis to Oregon State.
We also need to communicate better with the community—to let them know what the officers in
our high schools do, and why they are needed. Five new Resource Officers should be
allocated to our school team—one for each of our five high schools. Each officer should also
be responsible for working with the two middle schools and the primary schools in that high
school’s area.
Any public safety initiative for schools must be viewed in the context of EPD’s overall need for
additional personnel. Public safety must become a funding priority for us.
E. Jail and other Public Safety Facilities.
As noted above, effective public safety will require enough county jail space to hold violent
criminals and chronic repeat offenders in custody, and to prevent them from returning to the
street too soon. According to the Register-Guard, first-time property crime offenders are not
held because there is insufficient space in county jails to hold them.
We need to work with Lane County to help increase the number of jail spaces, and to provide
effective alcohol and drug treatment for offenders who need it.
F. Public Safety Downtown.
I believe strongly that we need a greater public safety presence downtown, but only as part
of an integrated approach to revitalize the downtown area.
Simply adding more public safety officers will not bring more people downtown. People need
a reason to come downtown. Increased public safety must go hand-in-hand with more
activities—such as shopping, offices and entertainment.
G. Identity Crimes.
I want to create an Identity Crimes Task Force to focus on one of today’s fastest growing and
most insidious crimes against individuals and businesses—identity theft via internet,
telephone, mail and other avenues. Identity theft crimes are a grossly under-reported, and
consequently even more of a problem than they appear.
H. Gang Problems.
Eugene is not an island unto itself. There is an emerging regional gang problem involving
drug and other crime activities that will require working effectively with local intergovernmental
partners, and not try to isolate ourselves as we have been doing over the last several years.
Within our community, we must evaluate this emerging issue and how it relates to using
Prevention and Intervention, before having to lock someone up.
I. The Police Auditor.
One of Eugene’s top priorities MUST be to create a balanced public safety policy that provides
effective protection for our neighborhoods and schools without sacrificing personal freedoms. During Mayor Piercy’s administration, a new POLICE AUDITOR position was created to
provide a fair process of oversight for the citizens and for the police.
Instead of encouraging fairness, I believe that the Mayor has politicized the process. Public
safety professionals deserve our city’s support and encouragement. They certainly do NOT
deserve what they have received over these past three years—being treated with little or no
respect.
Eugene will continue to have an Auditor. It is essential to create a functional role for the
Auditor that works fairly for everyone, that accomplishes what it was meant to accomplish, and
that is not allowed to become politicized.
J. Earning the Public Trust.
I am very committed to funding Eugene’s most important community services through our
general city budget. I believe that public safety should be at or near the top of the list.
Under-funding key city services has eroded the public’s trust in its local government, and I feel
it is important to earn this trust back.
I am proud to have worked with the Eugene Police Department. Collectively, I believe that
EPD personnel make up one of the finest public safety groups I have encountered in my
career. The department has accomplished much despite the under-staffing and under-funding
that have burdened them. We must provide better support for EPD through our city’s budget.
As your Mayor, one of my top priorities will be to increase public safety support through
general funding. It is neither fair nor appropriate to create special levies for this purpose, which
I consider to be a form of public “blackmail.” If our existing tax revenues cannot pay for an
acceptable level of public safety services, then we, as local government leaders, are not doing
our jobs.