Despite the recent string of resignations and allegations of harassment in the Department of Public Safety, plans to create a more professional atmosphere continue to move forward in the office.
Director Tom Fitzpatrick said that, in the next few months, DPS will implement new conduct standards and certify a core of officers to have more power on campus.
Fitzpatrick also said the department will remove the red and blue lights from atop the patrol cruisers it recently acquired. According to Oregon statutes, only emergency and police vehicles can use the lights, and DPS cars are neither.
“The light thing was just a severe oversight on our part,” he said.
This week DPS will get a fleet of new Jeeps as well, and some cars will be equipped with defibrillating paddles for first aid.
Fitzpatrick said DPS will also replace the yellow lights on its patrol vans. Yellow lights can only be used by hazardous waste cleanup cars.
According to Kim Maynard, who left the department almost two months ago, DPS employees had to sign a waiver saying they wouldn’t use the lights, even though they were installed on the cars.
“They’re not illegal to have; it’s illegal to use them,” Maynard said. He said he believes the department installed the lights under the assumption that officers could become commissioned officers and gain the right to use them.
Fitzpatrick said officers never had to sign an agreement not to use the lights, but he said the department will promote between five and 10 officers to “special security officers” by Jan. 1, 2001, at the latest. The new designation, which will come with extra training, will give officers probable cause arrest authority and the ability to stop and frisk people.
“We are moving in that direction very swiftly,” Fitzpatrick said. “With those powers, you are in essence police officers.”
The change is part of Fitzpatrick’s philosophy: To make DPS as professional and police-like as current Oregon law allows.
“When you have a problem, you don’t call a security officer, you call a police officer,” he said.
But Maynard said he never thought of himself or the department as police officers. Instead, he believed DPS should be a security force to help students stay out of trouble before the police get involved.
“They’re all just gung-ho on the commissioned police officer thing,” Maynard said of DPS management. “And it’s really ridiculous because the people that have the talent to be cops are going to be cops. So what we’re going to get are the ‘wannabes’ — the people that don’t quite make it up to that level.”
Although they are far from reaching the point of being police officers, Fitzpatrick said he would like to see his officers carry guns as part of becoming a more professional, better-trained and better-equipped force.
“It’s not a threat with proper training,” he said. “If you’re going to have cops, they should have guns.”
But Maynard said this change in philosophy could be a reason why so many DPS employees have left and been replaced by younger officers. He added that bike training and defensive tactics training made it more difficult for older officers to perform at the higher level.
Fitzpatrick agreed that as changes happen, some of the veteran officers may not be comfortable with the increased training and demand involved.
“It’s not as easy an assignment as people think,” he said.
To an extent, the department is still struggling. Along with the resignations and reassignments, DPS Lt. Marte Martinez is on personal leave for undisclosed reasons. She was put on administrative leave by Fitzpatrick, is now using saved vacation time to stay off the job and has hired a lawyer.
Fitzpatrick, Martinez and her lawyer all said they would not comment on the reasons for the leave.
“We’re struggling with staffing but we’re adequate,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think we have a positive future. This department was struggling before I got here.”
Internally, the department still plans on implementing a new “21 Standards of Conduct” policy by Nov. 1. The standards, which have a number of subpoints, detail conduct issues from drug and alcohol policy to readiness for overtime.
The draft policy also has a discipline clause that includes termination, but Fitzpatrick said that the officers’ contract with the Oregon Public Employees Union will always overrule a decision made with the new policy.