The Department of Public Safety will begin wielding its new, expanded power to cite students for offenses this year, whether for smoking marijuana in the residence halls or for underage drinking.
This summer, the Eugene City Council amended the city code and granted DPS officers the power to write municipal citations if they witness the offense. Before, DPS had to call on EPD to write simple citations, leaving suspects waiting at the scene for EPD to respond.
DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks said the powers, which will mostly be used to cite for minor in possession of alcohol and less than an ounce of marijuana, have been granted to all commissioned DPS officers.
Commissioned officers — those who have attended a public-safety course and completed a written- and oral-exam process — will also receive an additional 20 hours of training before they begin issuing citations, which Hicks said will likely begin this week.
Hicks said that the expanded powers have a threefold benefit for students.
“I think this will stimulate better cooperation between students and public safety officers,” he said, adding that it would “provide another tool to DPS officers that will be used to encourage young adults to make responsible decisions.”
Additionally, the powers will allow DPS to quickly resolve incidents in which nonstudents are disrupting the University, Hicks said.
Currently, nine DPS officers are commissioned.
DPS policies have undergone further changes in accordance with the expanded powers. Now that DPS officers can cite students for possession of controlled substances without EPD help, they must also seize and store any evidence. Although DPS already has an evidence room, it had to build a locker for controlled substances and provide extra evidence training for officers.
“We’ll have to confiscate evidence, properly secure it and, if necessary, present it during a court hearing,” Hicks said.
Despite the City Council’s quick approval of granting the powers, the issue was awash in controversy as ASUO officials clashed with the University administration over the lack of student input on the issue.
At the July 14 public hearing before the City Council, ASUO Campus Outreach Coordinator Shannon Tarvin decried the motion, saying students should have had more input. She also argued that ASUO was unable to give a position on the issue as a whole because inadequate time was provided for student input.
But the City Council did not heed ASUO’s arguments, eventually passing the ordinance 7-1 after two amendments failed, one to limit the proposal and another to table it until students could offer more input on the issue.
Ward 3 City Councilor David Kelly, who represents an area that includes the University and spearheaded the two amendments, expressed concern about the lack of student voice but eventually voted in favor of the ordinance.
Shortly after the City Council voted to grant the powers, Tarvin promised that ASUO would begin, through the Public Safety Advisory Group, to lobby the administration to reconsider implementing the changes.
Tarvin said ASUO is still working toward that goal, but is more focused on convincing the administration to restrict the expanded powers to citing only for minor in possession and possession of less than an ounce. She said DPS originally pushed to have those two powers.
“If that’s what they originally wanted, and that’s what they mostly called EPD for, then we don’t think they need all the powers,” she said. “We’re working to make (the changes) a benefit to students by making it seem as though they’re not being targeted or punished.”
ASUO is also pushing to ensure that students don’t receive two tickets for one offense: one municipal citation and one University Judicial Affairs ticket. Before, DPS would issue a Judicial ticket and call EPD to issue the municipal citation, Tarvin said.
Other speakers at the City Council’s public hearing argued the expanded power was a slippery slope that would eventually allow DPS officers to carry handguns.
But Hicks quickly rejected that argument, saying only peace officers, which have a legal definition, can carry firearms for law enforcement.
“I have to admit I don’t where that’s coming from,” he said. “(Department of) Public Safety officers have law enforcement authority, but they are not considered peace officers.”
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