University of Oregon President Michael Schill released his plan for police reform on Nov. 9 in response to students’ calls to defund and disarm the University of Oregon Police Department. The ASUO executive branch was among those voices, sharing a memorandum with the student body Oct. 5 on Instagram.
The memorandum asks that the university disarm UOPD officers unless “the use of a firearm is absolutely and unequivocally necessary for the protection of a civilian or themselves.”
“We wanted it to be a conversation starter,” ASUO Press Secretary Sam Simonett said of the memorandum, “and to state what our end goal is, which is to disarm the UOPD and see abolition as a possible end goal.”
“Ideally this is something that admin will engage us with,” ASUO President Isaiah Boyd said. “I’m really hopeful that it’s not all talk and they’re not being performative and this is something they’re actually willing to engage students with.”
Following the release of his UOPD reforms, Schill told the Daily Emerald newsroom that he’s always happy to talk about fully disarming campus police. “But I’ve had [it] a million different ways, and no one’s ever convinced me that we should get rid of the armed police force,” said Schill.
Related: “President Schill discusses COVID response, UOPD and Greek life”
As a result, his plan calls for a 26% decrease in UOPD’s armed force and a “[substantial] increase to the number of unarmed community service officers.”
UO spokesperson Saul Hubbard said the nine new CSOs will not affect UOPD’s budget, as these officers present the same annual cost as the seven armed positions Schill cut. Additionally, those seven positions are currently empty, meaning “no current UOPD employee has to be laid off or reclassified as a result of this shift,” Hubbard said. Between full- and part-time positions, UOPD currently has 19.5 armed officer positions filled.
“We totally believe this is a step in the right direction,” Simonett said of the increased presence of CSOs. “We think it opens the door to further reform and further conversation with administration.”
Simonett said CSOs performing routine campus patrols was something ASUO views as potentially helping their case for disarmament. “We want to see community service officers all around the community to make people feel safe,” he said. “If we can do that in buildings and study spaces, we should be able to apply that in a greater sense.”
Additionally, Simonett praised Schill’s plan to delegate CSOs the responsibility of responding to non-emergency calls and the fact that CSOs will not be in police uniform. Simonett said student activists have pushed for similar reform for years.
Schill’s reforms also outline plans to hire “a consultant with expertise in policing and diverse communities” who will provide input and potentially suggest future changes to UOPD. Hubbard said the consultant will be “a one-time expense,” meaning the contract won’t lead to an annual budget increase. UO has not yet determined which department funding for the consultant will come out of.
Schill said he understands “that to some members of our community — particularly People of Color — an armed police force generates feelings of oppression and lack of safety.”
“I don’t tolerate any acts of racism, any forms of racism, hate or bias from any member of my organization,” UOPD Chief Matthew Carmichael said. “I will never tolerate that kind of behavior.”
Carmichael said UOPD emphasizes community in its officer training. “This is training from the heart,” he said. “We sang songs. We talked about loving, kindness.”
To further increase trust between UOPD and the UO community, Carmichael pointed to the importance of transparency. Data about who UOPD cites, arrests and uses force against is publicly accessible on its website. The UOPD complaint process also includes a Complaint Review Committee with UO student, faculty and staff representatives serving on the board.
This transparency and community-centered policing approach creates a degree of trust between UOPD and the UO community, Carmichael said. Schill cited this as one of his primary reasons behind his reforms — if UO completely disarmed UOPD, the university would have to turn to the Eugene Police Department if an armed officer was needed.
Boyd said students similarly gravitated toward UOPD over EPD in an anonymous feedback survey to the ASUO memorandum — especially when it came to sexual violence on campus. He explained that some students of color shared a similar concern.
“At least with the UOPD, I’m a student,” he said, paraphrasing one of the survey responses, “so I can try to use that as an edge. I can try to use that as a way of de-escalating or managing the discomfort I might have interacting with that organization. When it comes to EPD, it’s a little different. These are individuals that I don’t have a direct connection with.”
While both Simonett and Boyd acknowledged that crime takes place on the UO campus, they said they want to shift away from armed officers being the first responders and invest in other options. Simonett said the vast majority of crimes UOPD responds to are misdemeanors, usually retroactively responding to vandalism and theft.
“We’re trying to take a more structural approach,” Boyd said. “Create a system where we can get the campus police unarmed. They can still manage their patrols as we progressively wind them out of the institution as a whole and create a comprehensive plan through which we can establish new programs.” He pointed to student mental health services as a specific area he wants to see funded, especially for People of Color in the UO community.
Carmichael said whether or not he agrees with the disarm movement isn’t the most important matter at hand — nor is it his choice to make. “What’s most important is that as a police chief, I should be listening to our community,” he said.
“I’ve met with a broad range of people,” Schill said. “I consulted all their views. And ultimately, the decision is mine.”
