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public distrust of the police department. Combined with the charges of racial <br />profiling, the entire management of the police department has come under scrutiny. <br />What kind of culture allows such activities to go unnoticed and unaddressed? <br />Questions have been asked about the complaint process of the police department <br />and whether potential complainants were turned away or shied away because of <br />fear of retribution. Many community members are convinced that something is <br />terribly wrong in and with the police department. <br /> <br />Perhaps the analogy to a "Perfect Storm" can best describe the situation that brought <br />ICMA and PERF to Eugene's doorstep. A combination of incidents, mis-steps, and <br />missed opportunities required an external look at the community and the police <br />department. The need for change would seem readily apparent, however, this is not <br />the first attempt at change in the EPD. <br /> <br />Over the past 20 years, the EPD has undergone a number of changes thought by <br />many in the department to have limited its ability to exercise the degree of control <br />necessary to properly guide the department into the future. The first of these <br />reported changes took place in the early 1980s when the police and fire departments <br />were realigned within the former department of public safety for the City of Eugene. <br />The public safety director selected at that time was a former member of the Eugene <br />Fire Department. Many of those who recall that period suggest that the primary <br />focus and the personal priority of the director resided with the fire department and <br />placed the police department in a subordinate role. <br /> <br />A general shifting of responsibility for human resource functions from the police <br />department to the City of Eugene's Human Resource Services (HR) has been another <br />significant change. Although this is not an uncommon practice, it is also not <br />uncommon for police departments that rely heavily on external (to the police <br />department) human resource departments to conduct their selection processes to <br /> <br /> <br />