| Eugene Police Department | |
| Abbreviation | EPD |
| Patch of the Eugene Police Department. | |
| Badge of the Eugene Police Department. | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Employees | 300 |
| Annual budget | $36.3 Million |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | City of Eugene in the state of Oregon, USA |
| Map of Eugene Police Department's jurisdiction. | |
| Size | 40.54 square miles (105.0 km2) |
| Population | 154,620 (2008) |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Eugene, Oregon |
| Police Officers | 180 |
| Civilians | 120 |
| Agency executive | Pete Kerns, Chief of Police |
| Facilities | |
| Stations | Downtown Station City Center Station West University Station Monroe Street Station |
| K9s | 4 Dogs |
| Website | |
| www.ci.eugene.or.us/police | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Eugene Police Department serves the residents of Eugene, Oregon, United States, the second largest city in the state.[1] The Eugene Police Department is a city law enforcement agency that handles 9-1-1 calls within the city of Eugene. The current Chief of Police is Chief Pete Kerns.[2][3]
Contents |
The Patrol Division acts as 9-1-1 and non-emergency response. The purpose of the Patrol Division is to respond to calls for service and protect life, property and ensure the overall safety of the community it serves.[4]
Uniformed police officers are on-duty in Eugene 24 hours a day, with each patrol team comprising several officers supervised by a sergeant.
The Traffic Enforcement Unit currently comprises nine officers and a sergeant. Because these officers patrol mostly on motorcycles, the traffic enforcement team is sometimes referred to informally as the motor unit. Eugene Police motor officers’ primary duty is enforcing traffic laws within the city of Eugene, including focused enforcement in response to neighborhood speeding complaints. In addition to radar speed patrol and other standard traffic enforcement duties, this unit also engages in focused patrols and public education campaigns such as saturation patrols for red light runners, seatbelt safety blitzes, and crosswalk pedestrian safety operations.
Community Service Officers are non-sworn (civilian) employees — they do not carry guns or make arrests, but do perform many of the other duties of patrol officers. CSOs provide traffic control services, take certain non-emergency police reports, perform patrol support at accidents and crime scenes, and provide community education services. Their uniforms and vehicles are visibly different from those of sworn police officers.
Crime Prevention Specialists work with individuals and community groups to reduce the risk of crime victimization. They provide services such as crime prevention presentations, home safety checks, women's safety classes, and Neighborhood Watch support.
Each unit in the Investigations Division consists of several detectives supervised by a detective sergeant.
The Property Crimes Unit focuses on investigating property crimes, arresting property crimes suspects, and recovering stolen property. Property crimes include burglary, auto theft, and vandalism.
Violent Crimes detectives investigate crimes against persons such as homicides, robberies, sexual assaults, physical assaults, and kidnappings. The Eugene Police Department does not have specific detectives assigned only to investigate homicides; all detectives in the unit investigate a wide range of persons crimes.
Fraud detectives investigate felony-level financial crimes, including forgery, fraud, identity theft, employee embezzlement, counterfeiting, financial scams, computer crimes, and financial abuse of elderly or disabled persons.
Plainclothes detectives in this unit conduct proactive operations and investigate reported crimes involving illegal drugs and vice crimes (such as prostitution). The unit also provides educational presentations and works with the community to address drug- and prostitution-related problems in Eugene's neighborhoods.
These teams are composed of police officers and detectives who serve on the ad hoc team as needed in addition to a regular full-time assignment in a regular unit.
The Arson Unit is a team of five detectives and one sergeant who assist in solving crimes related to fire. The unit works with the Eugene Fire Marshal's Office to solve homicides, intimidation, or insurance fraud relating to fire.[5]
The Domestic Violence Unit is made up of officers from the Eugene Police Department, as well as members of the Lane County Domestic Violence Council. This team investigates crimes involving domestic violence within the greater Lane County area.[6]
The SWAT and Crisis Negotiation Teams are units composed of two dozen officers that respond in special high risk situations. SWAT team members must be specially trained in building entry, officer and hostage rescues, weaponry and less-lethal munitions, marksmanship, and operation of specialty equipment.
The Eugene Police Department’s Explosive Disposal Unit (EDU), casually referred to as the “bomb squad", is a team of several officers and a sergeant. All of the team’s members have full-time duties in regular units, but also are on call 24 hours a day to respond to reports of possible explosive devices. The unit has two robots to help them dispose of explosives in a way that minimizes risk to personnel. The bomb squad robots also are used in other circumstances which would put human officers’ safety at risk; for example, in barricaded subject and hostage situations, a robot can be used to pull an injured person to safety or deliver a phone to a suspect to aid negotiations, without exposing an officer to possible gunfire.
Since the establishment of the Eugene Police department, three officers have died while in the line of duty. One officer died in 1930 of gunfire, the second died in a motorcycle accident in 1934,[8] and the third officer was shot while pursuing a vehicle into Springfield in 2011 and was pronounced dead at the hospital.[9]