After nearly a year of citing campus-area offenders, the University Department of Public Safety has issued fewer tickets than many students expected, DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks said at a Public Safety Advisory Group meeting Monday.
DPS authority was elevated in November 2003 with a city code amendment that allows public safety officers to issue citations for violations such as minors-in-possession of alcohol or of less than one ounce of marijuana.
Many students were initially concerned that the additional authority would lead to a drastic increase of citations issued, Hicks said. But he believes the department’s citing activities contradict its expectations.
“I think people expected to see a dramatic spike in the number of municipal citations,” Hicks said, noting a gradual decline of citations was a move toward “more of a campus process than it is with a court system.”
Over the course of the year, the number of MIP citations has decreased, while the number of alcohol violations referred to the campus judicial system has increased slightly.
The department issued 31 MIPs in November 2003, eight in December 2003 and 30 in January 2004. The figure then leveled out to roughly seven or eight per month, but with 14 issued in October 2004.
DPS previously ran into trouble when it encountered violations such as marijuana possession, according to officers at the PSAG meeting. Officers must directly witness a violation to enforce it. But when DPS couldn’t issue citations, officers had to wait for Eugene police to arrive for an individual to be cited. The violation usually was no longer occurring by the time the EPD could arrive, officers said.
The City Council requested two months ago that DPS begin building a progress report, which DPS will do by the end of the calendar year, Hicks said. The council will probably hold a subsequent meeting allowing students to voice their perceptions of the department’s increased authority, he said.
The amendment providing DPS additional authority is permanent as written in the city code, but could be amended again if the council sees a need for changes, Hicks said.
PSAG member Slade Leeson questioned whether DPS is using its new authority, noting a decrease in municipal citations despite the new powers.
Hicks said the decrease in citations issued actually demonstrated the amendment’s success.
“There was no need to cite because students were willing to comply,” Hicks said. “Before, we would have been calling the Eugene police.”

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