Campus law enforcement in Oregon

In the U.S. state of Oregon, enforcement of local, state, and federal law on public university property is delegated to a number of security, public safety, and police agencies.

Every US state except for Oregon, provides for the creation of campus police agencies. Oregon does not provide for this, and has statutes on file that provide for "Special Campus Security Officers." Currently, these officers are referred to as Public Safety Officers and are employed through a department of public/campus Safety or an office of public/campus safety.

Statutory authority and training

Authority

Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 352.385 provides for the commissioning and training of "special campus safety officers." There are several conditions placed on this commissioning, including restriction on the use of the title "police," in reference to either officers, agencies, or on university vehicles. Additionally, "special campus safety officers" are prohibited from carrying firearms while acting as enforcement officers. There has been debate as to weather officers could carry firearms while acting in a security setting.

ORS 352.385

ORS 352.385 reads:

"ORS 352.385 Special campus security officers; authority; training; expense. (1) The State Board of Higher Education may, at the request of any institution under its control, authorize that institution to commission one or more of its employees as special campus security officers. However, the total number of special campus security officers commissioned at the institutions in the Oregon University System shall not exceed 50. Special campus security officers shall have stop and frisk authority as set forth in ORS 131.605 to 131.625 and probable cause arrest authority and the accompanying immunities as set forth in ORS 133.310 and 133.315 when acting in the scope of their employment as defined by the State Board of Higher Education. Special campus security officers shall not be authorized to carry firearms as police officers and, except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, shall not be considered police officers for purposes of ORS 181.610, 238.005, 243.005 or 243.736.

"The Department of Public Safety Standards and Training shall train special campus security officers at the expense of the State Board of Higher Education.""The State Board of Higher Education, acting by and through its special campus security officers, is a criminal justice agency for purposes of rules adopted pursuant to ORS 181.730"

* It should be noted, that another statute provides Oregon universities with the option to select university employees to be commissioned as peace officers. These peace officers would be comissioned for the purposes of traffic enforcement. Through this statute, Western Oregon University currently employs sworn law enforcement officers. At present they are unarmed and it is unknown if they receive additional training.

Training

Currently, the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training has elected to provide a 240 hour academy at their facility in Salem. This course is a abbreviated version of the Basic Police I Academy, and does not cover training in use of firearms or vehicular pursuit. DPSST is not required to hold this academy yearly, and in the past has not done so. During those years, some agencies has responded to this, by electing to send some of their officers to other academies. For several years, the University of Oregon Department of Public Safety sent officers to the Douglas County Sheriff Academy, to participate in their Reserve Deputy training. This training did not involve commissioning as a deputy, but did cover all the training required to be commissioned.

System in practice

In practice the "Public Safety Model of Campus Law Enforcment" has been only moderately effective.

Cooperative agreements and mutual aid

The system lends itself to cooperative agreements with other local law enforcement. The Oregon Health and Science University Department of Public Safety has an agreement with the Portland Police Bureau that provides for mutual aid and support. The University of Portland has an agreement with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office that provides for jail services. Contrary to that, the University of Oregon Department of Public Safety has an agreement with the Eugene Police Department in which they staff several officers on campus and provide transport services to jail. These examples illustrate the flexibility of the Public Safety system. In some areas, the positives of these agreements have been overshadowed by the negatives. The University of Oregon/Eugene Police agreement has been strained by the shortage of officers experienced by the Eugene Police, and the subsequent long waits for response that DPS experiences.

Interaction with students

Generally, public safety officers have greater flexibility than other law enforcement officers when dealing with university students. Student judicial and conduct codes allow for dealing with minor drug, alcohol, and vandalism charges outside the legal system. In addition to this, some campus agencies have the authority to write citations related to student offenses into local justice and municipal courts, in addition to their state authority.

Future possibilities

As a reaction to the Virginia Tech massacre and past school shootings in Oregon (Thurston High School shooting, the shooting of Christopher Brathwaite at Autzen Stadium at the University of Oregon, and other shooting on or near campuses in Oregon), there have been movements to restructure the system of campus law enforcement in Oregon.

Several bills have been sent to committee in the Oregon House of Representatives, all of which proposed opening the door to the creation of full police agencies on university campuses.

See also

*List of law enforcement agencies in Oregon
*Oregon University System

External links

** [http://www.safetyweb.uoregon.edu// University of Oregon - Department of Public Safety]
** [http://www.sou.edu/security// Southern Oregon University - Department of Campus Safety]
** [http://www.pdx.edu/cpso// Portland State University - Office of Public Safety]
** [http://www.wou.edu/admin/safety/// Western Oregon University - Department of Campus Safety]