The Department of Public Safety and the Office of Student Life are one step closer to resolving the differences between their policies for citing minors who call seeking medical assistance for alcohol poisoning.
The Public Safety Advisory Group unanimously passed a motion Tuesday recommending that DPS alter its policies regarding when to issue citations in order to better emphasize its goal of protecting students’ medical safety when responding to calls for assistance.
PSAG had been working on a recommendation for several months that would change DPS policies to coincide with those of the Office of Student Life.
The office has a policy of not citing students if they call seeking medical treatment for alcohol poisoning, which conflicts with DPS’ policy of always issuing citations in such situations.
Questions surrounded the specifics of the recommendation and how to define incidents in which officer discretion is needed, but group members decided that given the short amount of time left to make a policy recommendation, they should pass the recommendation and allow DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks to make necessary adjustments and present them at the group’s final meeting of the year in May.
“I’m not willing to go to the point of saying we’ll give amnesty,” Hicks said. “I don’t think that’s a decision that the Department of Public Safety can and should make.”
Hicks said he will review the recommendation, work with the department to implement policy changes and report any necessary revisions to the recommendation at the next advisory group meeting.
The recommendation calls for officers to refrain from issuing citations in alcohol-related medical emergencies and calls for officers to “be able to use their discretion in dealing with these situations.”
“Students who are not also engaged in abusive acts against persons or property should be directed to an ‘in house’ diversion program designed to offer the help the student needs,” the recommendation reads.
It also asks that “abusive acts” caused by a “physical illness” or an inability to comply because of an illness not be reprimanded.
Group chair and University senior Corey Harmon, who drafted the
recommendation, said she wanted to make sure it protected students from being penalized for any
actions that may stem from alcohol-induced medical conditions such as alcohol poisoning.
“I wanted to try to spell out the difference between malicious violent-ness and the ‘I have no control over what I’m doing because I have alcohol poisoning,’” Harmon said.
Eugene Police Officer Larry Crompton questioned how it is possible to allow discretion but mandate a “no citation” policy for all calls asking for medical assistance.
Crompton said it may be difficult to define on paper what makes a situation “truly a medical condition and not just on that fringe of ‘I’m real sick, I ate 12 slices of pizza and drank too many beers and am throwing up now.’”
University junior and group member Slade Leeson suggested striking the sentence about officer discretion in order to better comply with a previous sentence asking for no citations to be issued, a suggestion rejected by EPD and DPS officers because of what they said is a strong need for discretion in the law enforcement business.
Crompton said discretion is not something that can be easily defined.
“It’s based on experience and training, period. You can’t put into policy every single thing; it doesn’t work that way,” Crompton said.
ASUO Legal Services Director Ilona Koleszar stressed the need to set guidelines for officers when using discretion and said it isn’t unusual for such guidelines to be in place.
“Nobody says just go out and
do whatever you want and we’ll call it discretion,” Koleszar said. “If I was an officer, I’d want to have some guidelines.”
Hicks said the recommendation that officers use their discretion with students being uncooperative as a result of alcohol poisoning fails to clearly define “in all circumstances what uncooperative is.”
Hicks said allowing officers to use their own discretion when handling situations involving minors consuming alcohol is something DPS should have the ability to do.
“In general, I think our officers have the ability to make that call in a consistent manner,” Hicks said.
Director of Student Judicial Affairs Chris Loschiavo agreed with the officers that students who do not actually have alcohol poisoning should not receive amnesty, but Koleszar said if they called seeking medical attention they should not be punished.
“That is totally counterproductive,” Koleszar said. “What we’re saying is it’s better safe than sorry, please make the call, save a life.”
Crompton said it’s not fair for police officers to treat University students differently than any other citizen, but Koleszar said the rise of alcohol-related deaths on college campuses across the country is a legitimate reason to do just that.
The group unanimously voted to approve the recommendation after Hicks reminded them that there wasn’t much time left in the year to do so and that the group could examine possible revisions at the May meeting.
Hicks said the changes PSAG
recommended should be relatively easy to implement in his department’s policies.
“I’m confident I’ll be able to modify the existing policy to make it consistent with what PSAG is recommending,” Hicks said after the meeting.
Group advises DPS to alter its alcohol citation policies
Daily Emerald
April 26, 2005
Department of Public Safety officer Mike Eppli, DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks and Public Safety Advisory Group Chair Corey Harmon discuss a resolution that asks DPS to refrain from issuing citations to students who call seeking medical help fo
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