At his hometown church in Los Angeles, Randy Ellis@@http://special.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/26878236-41/ellis-university-west-police-eugene.html.csp@@ remembers police officers flooding the pews every Sunday. It wasn’t until after he earned his bachelor’s degree in theology from Northwest Christian College (now known as Northwest Christian University) that he realized he didn’t want to go to graduate school, but he still wanted to help the community somehow. He decided to take the pay cut and quit his job with a plywood mill to become a police officer at the Eugene Police Department.
Ellis is at the end of an approximately 20-year tenure with the West University Neighborhood. In that time, he has been able to form relationships with the students, homeowners, business owners, homeless and criminals. He knows every crime trend, every nook, every cranny and every hotspot of the West University Neighborhood.
“One of the main things I saw wrong in West University Neighborhood was that it wasn’t clean, and we wanted to clean it up,” Ellis says. “Because, if it looks like shit, you’re going to treat it like shit. That’s how it works.”
Eugene police officer Randy Ellis has been on the force working the West University Neighborhood for the last 42 years. Ellis estimates he’s worked in the city 15 years longer than the next longest tenured officer. (Alex McDougall/Oregon Daily Emerald)
Ellis decided to take matters into his own hands. Graffiti was a growing problem in the area, and Ellis knew painting over the tags would only result in artists painting another. So, he made a stencil about the size of a piece of paper that read the word, “SUCKS” in all caps. He would go in the middle of the night and “ninja-tag all over the place” by spraying his stencil over the tag with his fluorescent-pink spray paint. The idea to Ellis was that the tagger would bring his friends back to show his or her work off, only to produce a ruined tag. Eventually, he was caught in the act by a tagger and a complaint was filed against him. He had to change the stencil from “SUCKS” to “STINKS,” because it’s less offensive, but he still carries his paint can with him today.
“It was the most effective method that we have tried,” Ellis says, acknowledging that he can be unorthodox at times with his policing. “Business owners would call me once they figured out I was doing it, and they would ask me to come paint ‘sucks’ over the graffiti tag on their wall. It really got the message across.”
He also purchased trash cans in West University so students were more likely to throw their trash away. In his eyes, people want to keep the streets clean but would rather throw it on the ground than go hunting for a trash can after a certain amount of time. If a trash can is easily accessible, they will throw the trash away. In turn, Ellis hires a homeless man and pays him to empty the trash cans every week.
Approximately two years ago, he purchased $350 in five-dollar gift cards from McDonald’s for people he knew needed it. He says that he gave the last one out a couple of weeks ago.
All of this was out of Ellis’ pocket.
“We had a community policing budget when I started here,” Ellis says. “But they took the community policing budget out, so it became my policing budget. I don’t care about it — I just want to help.”
Randy Ellis pours out two cans of Sparks Iced Tea confiscated from a man on Patterson Alley between 11th and 12th avenues. (Alex McDougall/Oregon Daily Emerald)
Over the years, Ellis has started collections to help clothe the homeless in the neighborhood. At one point in time, he received $7,000 in donations from the community. Ellis used that $7,000 to buy clothing, sleeping bags and boots to give to programs in the West University area that help homeless people and criminals get back on their feet.
“People want to help,” Ellis says. “You give somebody a chance to really help, they will.
“It would be cool if the city had one cop in each corner of the city who took care of this kind of stuff, but many times they don’t have the funding to do so.”
Ellis might not be able to do so anymore either, as he was told recently that his position will no longer exist as of July 1.
“I didn’t get into this job for the money, so I’m not even worried,” Ellis says, shrugging his shoulders and leaning back in his chair. “Either my job isn’t going to be here anymore, or I’m going to leave it when I can no longer do what I believe in. As long as I think I’m making a difference in people’s lives, I’ll continue to do it.”
This was a feeling that came from his upbringing in the church and his religious education, he believes. Many people ask him why he didn’t continue his education and become a minister.
“I knew that I didn’t have enough compassion to be a minister, but I knew I had enough concern to be a police officer,” he says, pausing to grin. “But I like to think I’m still a minister — the only difference is my flock is all these people on the street.”
Randy Ellis assisted DPS officer Adam Lillengreen in arresting David Stetta for trespassing on University of Oregon property at Riley Hall. DPS does not yet have the authority to make arrests but can detain and hold lawbreakers until Eugene police officers are available to transport and book offenders at Lane County Jail. (Alex McDougall/Oregon Daily Emerald)