The Eugene Police Commission unanimously agreed Thursday that the city should require private security and safety agencies to have uniforms substantially different from those of Eugene police.
The proposed ordinance prohibits anyone from wearing a uniform “substantially similar” to a Eugene police officer’s in “colors, design, identifying insignia, badge, standard equipment and other features.”
If the recommendation is approved by the City Council, the ordinance would have little to no effect on any existing agencies in Eugene, including the University’s Department of Public Safety, which Police Commissioner John Brown said was the impetus for the proposal.
Because DPS is a state agency, it may not have to comply with the city ordinance. Nevertheless, if the rule does apply, it could prevent confusion when DPS and EPD officers respond to situations on and around the University campus, Brown said.
One such situation occurred at Neighbors Bar & Bistro near campus one-and-a-half to two years ago. Brown, who was on a ride-along with police, said about 11 uniformed officers responded to arrest one person, and only two were Eugene police. The other nine were DPS, he said, which gave police a bad rap for what looked like “overkill.”
“Right now, you can’t tell the police and DPS apart,” Brown said. “You need to know who has a gun and who doesn’t.”
He said unlike EPD, DPS are not sworn officers and are not armed, which could create security risks when a subject with a gun might shoot an officer they think is also armed.
Security agencies also aren’t restricted from having the word “police” on their uniforms, although no entities in the Eugene area currently use it, he said.
The recommendation would have no
monetary consequences for Eugene police because it would require other agencies to change their attire, Brown said. But he didn’t believe DPS had reason for concern over potential costs.
“They could be phased in,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be done immediately. Those uniforms don’t last forever. For the interim you could put a yellow stripe or something on your hat – do something to distinguish it.”
But the recommendation might not affect DPS at all, Police Commissioner Floyd Prozanski said.
The Department of Public Safety, as part of the University, is a state agency, and therefore could block the city from implementing a rule against it, Prozanski said.
As an alternative, the city could push for an exemption from the state rule protecting DPS, or the city and the University could work out a voluntary agreement on uniforms, he said.
University Vice President for Administration Dan Williams said in an e-mail that Eugene’s chief of police told him earlier in the week that “the commission’s interest was focused primarily on local security service personnel, and not the University DPS staff.”
Williams didn’t want “to speculate about what, if anything, (they) might do to accommodate the ordinance,” unless the University receives a specific request from the city, he said.
The uniform issue has been in discussion since last year. In a past interview with the Emerald, DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks said he was concerned about the recommendation and its potential costs. He estimated replacing the department’s roughly 18 uniforms and informing the public about them would cost $8,000 to $10,000.
The department’s uniforms have shoulder patches and badges that identify their wearers as University public safety officers and patrol jackets that, with a combination of light and dark blues, also differentiate them from EPD attire. DPS uniforms have the “LAPD blue” color, and are “virtually identical” to other Oregon University System public safety department uniforms, Hicks said.
No existing security agencies other than DPS have uniforms that could be seen as similar to the EPD’s, Brown said. The ordinance would be proactive in multiple ways, including helping restrict uniforms purchased by new security agencies, an increasing presence in the growing city of Eugene, he said.
“At least it’s a good faith effort on the part of the city that they recognize the problem and are trying to make a distinction so there’s no confusion in the community,” Brown said. “DPS has the option of going along with it.”

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