According to data endorsed by the Eugene Police Department, approximately 34 known registered sex offenders reside in the three zip codes closest to University property in Eugene and Springfield.
According to Department of Public Safety records, the department has made contact with 16 individuals on campus in the past two months who were registered sex offenders. Seven of these individuals were then arrested for violations, outstanding warrants or misdemeanor offenses.
Not all encounters are so passive, however. According to DPS, four of the 16 registered sex offenders on campus resisted arrest when taken into custody. What’s more, two of the sex offenders had been found to be in possession of weapons in past interactions with campus authorities. These weapons were identified as an uncapped razor and a scalpel.
DPS cannot currently process or hold arrested individuals, including registered sex offenders believed to be in violation of the law, under its current status as a campus public safety agency. DPS Capt. Ed Rinne pointed out that if State Bills 116 and 405 were passed and implemented at the University, his agency would be able to hold suspects and submit cases to the Lane County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution. These two laws would enable the University and the Oregon University System to transform its public safety departments into fully sworn police agencies, no longer limiting them in conducting their own prosecutions and investigations.
Rinne said his agency has been actively collecting data on such individuals and encounters for a number of years, but its criminal intelligence analyst, Monica Hildebrand, has only been actively analyzing the data since last December. Half of these individuals were identified as transients, while half had listed residences.
Rinne did not say there has been a clear rise in DPS contacts with registered sex offenders in recent months. But he did say Hildebrand actively started analyzing the data because of what she saw as an increase in registered sex offender contacts in December; there were 10 that month and six in January.
Registered sex offenders in the state are individuals who have been convicted of crimes under sections of Oregon Revised Statute 163. These crimes range in severity and include, but are not limited to, acts where one individual is not mentally capable of granting proper consent, as well as statutory and forced rape. The law also prosecutes some forms of public indecency and sexually soliciting minors over the Internet.
As the law currently stands, once an individual becomes a registered sex offender in the state of Oregon for a Class A or B felony, or is considered predatory, he or she must be registered for life. This involves registering with local law enforcement officials upon moving to a new neighborhood and notifying police agencies when they will be visiting or working in certain areas. For example, it wouldn’t be illegal for a registered sex offender to be on campus, but that individual would be lawfully obligated to inform DPS of their presence for purposes of employment or school attendance.
The Oregon State Police operates a website at sexoffenders.oregon.gov to identify individuals based on names and appearances, in addition to all individuals residing within a one-mile radius of registered sex offenders in the state of Oregon.
However, Jenna McCulley, a spokesperson for EPD, said the site can be confusing and instead recommended the resources offered at www.criminalcheck.com. McCulley said that neither site was completely accurate and added that EPD is only responsible for registering known sex offenders in its jurisdiction and not for monitoring their whereabouts unless they are suspected of further illegal activity.
The state of Oregon will only release the names of offenders on this list if they have been identified as predatory or as sexually violent and dangerous individuals under ORS 144.
Not all violators of ORS 163 are required to register as sex offenders, but those who are covered under ORS 181 — a provision not limited to sex offender registration — include individuals with statutes relating to crime records and reporting.
Oregon House Bill 2765, a bill currently under consideration by the legislature, would seek to amend portions of ORS 181 and allow certain first-time offenders under ORS 163 to not register as sex offenders. Passed in 2007 and made into law in 2008, HB 2333 relieves individuals from their obligation to file with the sex offender registry if they meet certain conditions.
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