Getting involved with the police is usually not a fun venture, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
Be it a noise complaint, an arrest, landlord troubles or just a routine traffic stop, knowledge of the police department and its services can be beneficial to any University student, Eugene Police Department spokeswoman Kerry Delf said.
“Knowing what the department is like and maybe having some positive contacts with police officers and knowing what services are available to them [the students] can stand them in good stead when the time comes,” Delf said.
An ongoing research project
conducted by Michigan State University surveys colleges across the country, including the University, examining the popularity of off-campus partying and illegal activities.
Delf said the survey is expected to show the problem to be prominent nationwide.
“Some students may get through four years at the University and never have a reason to come in contact with the police … but many of them will,” Delf said.
West University Neighborhood Board Chairman Drix Rixmann said students can be very reluctant to familiarize themselves with police services because of the authoritative nature of the police.
“When [the students] first show up in our neighborhood, they’re just getting out of the home and they always got to have authority at home,” Rixmann said.
If students can look past the “mom and dad”-like nature of the police it will be possible to form relationships that can benefit everyone involved, he said.
“When kids come in that naive, the only way they can balance out their naivete is just to arm themselves with more knowledge,” Rixmann said.
The police department is working to do just that, Delf said.
Like many cities across the country, Delf said Eugene cannot afford to employ the ideal number of police officers. But that does not stop the department from giving attention to all parts of the community, especially the University.
“We have officers on campus and near campus who are dedicated to that area; most of our patrol officers are not dedicated to a specific location or a specific neighborhood,” Delf said.
The riots in the West University neighborhood two years ago spawned the creation of the West University Task Force, a coalition of city and University officials working toward improving relations between the University and the community.
“Certainly when there’s a major incident like that it can really be an eye opener for people to kind of spark some more proactive and interagency work,” Delf said.
The University and the police department have many other projects and groups in place aimed at improving quality of life and decreasing student crime rates, Delf said.
With a team of three policemen — Sgt. Mark Montes and officers Mike Carter and Larry Crompton — the police department employs a West
University neighborhood foot patrolman, officer Randy Ellis, and a Southwest University neighborhood foot patrolman, officer Robert Clowers.
“The people who live and work and travel through that area and
go to school there come in contact with the people out on foot patrol, which is a very major, valuable
aspect of a community policing model,” Delf said.
The West University neighborhood has had a particularly troubled past and it has taken years to get the quality of living up to the level residents want and deserve, Jack Backes, manager of the West University Public Safety Station at 13th Avenue and Alder Street said.
A few years ago it was difficult to walk down 13th Avenue without being asked for spare change or offered illegal drugs, but the foot patrol has quelled that problem, Backes said.
“We’re more or less in maintenance mode. The clean-up work is pretty much done,” he said.
Along with a series of crime prevention programs, the public safety station offers an array of services intended to make living in the West University neighborhood more comfortable and convenient, Backes said, such as in-station bike registration and parking fee payment.
“We know it’s difficult for students to have to grab their cars or bikes or whatever and go clear to City Hall to take care of that stuff,” he said.
Minor things like that are what makes it more convenient to live in the neighborhood and helps put a friendly face on the police department, Backes said.
“We want more people to know that we’re here. New students coming in don’t realize that this is a police station,” Backes said.

Meghann M. Cuniff is a freelance
reporter for the Emerald.