More than half the employees at the Oregon State Police’s forensics division stand to lose their jobs if Measure 30 fails, and such a massive loss in manpower could translate into a slower-moving wheel of justice.
OSP spokesman Lt. Glenn Chastain said without the extra funding from Measure 30’s tax increases, OSP will be forced to cut $3.92 million from its budget. That would mean laying off 60 forensic positions out of 107, a 56 percent reduction.
Locally, that would lead to reducing the staff at the OSP Springfield Forensics Lab to three scientists, according to lab director Brad Putnam.
Forensic scientist Casey Roberts will be one of the workers to lose her job if Measure 30 fails. Roberts has worked at the Springfield lab for three years analyzing evidence for the presence of illegal drugs, and in her time at the lab, Roberts estimates she has worked on around 1,500 drug cases for the state.
“I was the only full-time drug chemist, and that’s a lot to be on one person’s shoulders,” Roberts said. “And if I get laid off, who’s going to do it?”
Putnam said if Measure 30 fails and OSP is forced to reduce half of its forensics positions, labs across the state will have to cope by arranging cases in a priority matrix. High priority crimes like homicide, rape and
aggravated assault will be handled first, and low priority cases like property theft and drug cases will be dealt with last.
But Putnam said there is a problem with this system: High priority crimes would keep coming in and the low priority ones would just sit in a file and not get finished, which would create a huge backlog. Putnam said he’s already seen this occurring since Measure 28’s failure in 2003. The Springfield lab is dealing with a backlog of 450 drug cases, Putnam said, which is an “unprecedented” number. And if Measure 30 fails, the
backlog will increase even more.
“We try not to think about it,” he said.
Oregon voters will decide the fate of Measure 30 on Feb. 3. Approval of the measure will bring in $800 million to the state through a temporary tax surcharge and other tax changes, while failure of the measure will allow a $544 million budget hole to remain and force agencies across the state to slash their budgets.
If Roberts is laid off because of lack of state funding, it will be the second time in the last three years. After Measure 28 failed, she lost her job on the day of her anniversary of being hired at the lab. For one month and five days, Roberts sent out job applications, went to job interviews and waited to see if there was some way to get her job back.
“It wasn’t like we could take advantage of the time off — we didn’t know we were going to get hired back,” Roberts said. “There was a lot of uncertainty.”
She added that she likes working for the state police as a forensic scientist, but being caught in a funding yo-yo where she isn’t certain she’ll stay employed has been a rough experience — one she never expected to have.
“This is supposed to be a stable job,” she said. “I never thought I would be laid off as a forensic scientist — it’s an essential part of the judicial system.”