The University of Oregon Police Department claims it puts the security and safety of its students as a top priority. However, the UO does not have a consistent way that it reports safety issues to students.
UOPD sends UO Alert messages when there is “an imminent threat to the health and/or safety of the campus community,” according to its UO Alerts website.
For the alerts, the question of who responds to a call lies behind which police department’s jurisdiction it is, according to John Johnson III, director of engagement at UOPD.
Eugene Police Department’s service area goes from Monroe to the McKenzie Bridge to Lowell and to Crow. UOPD’s primary patrol jurisdiction is the owned and controlled property of the University of Oregon campus, Johnson said.
“Because university-owned property may be different than just university on-campus or operated campus area — that kind of determines who gets the call first or who gets a call period,” Johnson said.
Ensuring students are informed of potential threats in the area relies on communication between the two agencies. But for something that occurs on or around campus, there is no formal process of relaying information from EPD to UOPD, UO Spokesperson Angela Seydel said in an email.
“As for real-time sharing of information other than sexual misconduct cases, there is no formal agreement, but the information is often shared as a courtesy,” Seydel said.
When information is relayed, the turnaround time could be between two to three minutes Johnson said in an interview.
On April 23, the EPD received notice of gunshots in one of the 900 block apartment windows by a group of 12 to 15 men who were yelling homophobic slurs at a resident of the apartment.
Despite this shooting occurring next to over four Greek life houses and multiple off-campus student apartments, Seydel wrote in an email that UOPD was never informed, which is why no alert was sent to UO students.
However, EPD spokesperson Melinda McLaughlin said there was a call made by 911 to UOPD around 1:04 a.m. regarding the shooting.
McLaughlin said that depending on the proximity to the UO and the kind of incident, either the Watch Commander, who has oversight of all emergent issues that affect the police department, or the Central Lane Communications Center (911), will call UOPD.
Johnson said that if a call is received involving students but is not on campus, it may not fall in the proximity that UOPD would get an alert.
Seydel said UOPD will send out an alert if the threat is imminent and ongoing, but it is not UOPD who determines if these alerts get sent out. When UO Safety Alerts are sent out it is sent through the infrastructure of the command staff to the students and community, not directly from UOPD.
UOPD falls under the Safety and Risk Services in the structure of the university, Seydel said. Two to three supervisory positions within the infrastructure make the decision to send or not to send the notification out to the community.
Currently, the UO alert notification process begins with the UOPD Chief calling Seydel or a supervisory entity in the Safety and Risk Services. Then, those entities will make the decision to send out an alert.
“A lot of the time it’s: ‘Is this on campus? Is this tied to campus or in the immediate area? Is it involving UO students on campus? Is it an ongoing threat?’” Seydel said.
The location of the shooting on April 23 was a 10-minute walk from campus and was surrounded by UO students who live off campus, yet the UOPD did not notify students or community members.
Johnson said there was no alert because the shooting was not an ongoing threat, despite the case remaining open and under investigation.
“The idea of something occurring, that hasn’t been resolved, as far as the investigation, is a different threat dynamic,” Johnson said.
For Eugene, EPD and UOPD may receive the same information, he said, causing both to respond. The two agencies are not divided and they decide who has the right resources to respond to each call, he said.
Because of low staffing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agencies have redistributed responsibilities in order to not spread workers too thin, Johnson said. UOPD is still working to figure out how to adapt to the changes post-COVID and how to handle every situation.
