The Department of Public Safety’s relationship with the Eugene Police Department is under scrutiny, a Eugene police sergeant confirmed recently.
EPD Sgt. Tim McCarthy of Internal Affairs confirmed that his unit is conducting an investigation into both departments because of complaints from DPS patrol officers and officers working the EPD campus detail. McCarthy said he could not speak about details of the investigation.
“There was a personnel matter — an internal conflict and performance issue going back and forth,” he said. “This includes line officers and management of DPS.”
In addition to the current investigation, the University department also has faced allegations of age discrimination and a hostile workplace from former DPS employees, as well as the questionable status of a lieutenant from the department’s management team. Lt. Marte Martinez was placed on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons at the beginning of the school year and is still off the job, using personal vacation time. DPS management will not say if she can or will return.
The investigation also comes at a time when the police and DPS are stalled in renegotiating their contract. DPS Director Tom Fitzpatrick said the negotiations have been “on and off for several months” because of issues between the two departments that have yet to be resolved. He said key officers in both departments have had scheduling conflicts, which prevented discussion.
He said he would not discuss what those issues were.
“It’s negotiations – I wouldn’t say if it was good or bad,” he said.
He said that relations between the two departments are generally positive.
Fitzpatrick said he was not aware of any current investigation into DPS by the Eugene Police Department. He said there was an EPD investigation into DPS last summer, but said he could not speak about the details of the earlier investigation.
Former employees and those close to DPS allege that as the organization’s management moves forward with its plans to create a more professional security force with many of the same rights as the police, conflicts are arising between DPS and EPD about who has authority on campus.
Oregon Public Employee Union steward Anthony Hensley, who deals with OPEU employees, including DPS officers, said DPS officers are using more police equipment. He said the equipment and new uniforms are resulting in confusion and conflicts.
“There are reasons police carry weapons and there are reasons security guards don’t,” he said. “When they look like each other, there are going to be problems.”
Fitzpatrick, however, said there were no serious problems between the two departments, which he said enjoyed a “professional relationship.”
He said at times small conflicts may arise at the officer level between police and DPS about the seriousness of situations on campus, but he said this did not signify a serious rift between police and public safety personnel.
“The relationship is a good business relationship,” he said, “but are there frictions? Yes.”
Fitzpatrick said some of the friction arises from the fact that police officers come to campus expecting the demands of the detail to be less strenuous than the city patrol. This leads to disagreements between officers from the two departments on how best to respond to incidents on campus.
EPD Chief Jim Hill also said relations between DPS and EPD have remained good.
He said that some of the conflicts or “rubs” between the departments came from the fact that police officers are often spread too thin and can’t get to every DPS call for assistance. Hill added there has been some conflict about incidents that the two departments perceive differently. Because of public safety’s security role on campus, Hill said DPS officers often believe that police should take more action than is warranted.
“There can be some misunderstanding about roles,” he said.
Despite the occasional disputes between the two departments, Hill said that overall relations are stable between the police department and DPS. An example of this was the fact that Hill has not had to step into any of these conflicts.
“It hasn’t been at such a magnitude that it has required my intervention as a chief,” he said.