The University of Oregon Police Department will soon introduce a new look to its patrol cars and officer uniforms that closely match the university’s colors.
One UOPD truck already has a new $3,533 vinyl wrap. The patrol cars will also have a wrap, but the look and cost will be slightly different, UO Police Chief Matthew Carmichael said.
“If I take this truck onto campus students look and know who I am,” Carmichael said. “What we focus on is the community policing aspect for members of our community who do not feel connected to the police.”
The truck is green, gray and yellow with wings that resemble the Duck football team’s uniforms. The UOPD uniforms will be a darker shade of green and will feature a UOPD patch on one of the sleeves, Carmichael said.  
“Something that we have really looked hard at and learned over the course of the last seven or eight years is that our students are just really, really excited about the Duck identity,” UOPD  spokesman Kelly McIver said.
In addition to the new look, the UOPD will be reducing the number of vehicles they have and replacing old patrol cars with smaller cars that are more environmentally friendly and economical. This reduction of the fleet is estimated to save the UOPD between $20,000 and $30,000 annually and enables them to spend more money on other projects that attempt to help the campus community. The new police fleet will lead to a decrease in overall fleet spending by the UOPD.
“One of my goals since I have been working with the police… was to be more efficient with our dollars that we are spending on our fleet,” said UO Finance and Administration Shared Services Director Jon Marchetta.
Chief Carmichael has been involved in these upcoming changes and has more planned for the upcoming school year. Carmichael has been serving as the UO Police Chief for a little over a year and has 30 years of experience working in law enforcement. Prior to working for the UOPD he was the police chief at University of California, Davis.
“[Carmichael] has made a very substantial difference in the tenor and tone and the vision of the department,” said Andre Le Duc, Associate Vice President for Safety and Risk Services and Chief Resilience Officer. “The chief has done a good job in starting to lay a foundation on how to build out a police department.”
The UOPD also is planning to increase the number of students they employ through Safe Ride, Designated Driver Shuttle and student ambassadors. They will spend an estimated $300,000 this year on compensation for students who work with the police.
“Cranking up student employment is imperative for us as campus police. We call it students protecting students, so students will engage with other students,” said Carmichael.

.@uoregon .@UOPolice This could be the coolest truck on campus!! Always appreciative of our UOPD, and now–how about these wheels! #UOregon pic.twitter.com/diz7zfdNEO
— Roger Thompson (@UOVP_Dr_T) September 13, 2017

This article has been updated to clarify that the new fleet will lead to an overall decrease in UOPD expenses on cars, not expenses as a whole.