Oregon State Police ending decades-long policing partnership with Oregon State University
CORVALLIS, Ore. October 27 2019– Oregon State Police announced this week that it’s ending its decades-long policing partnership with Oregon State University due to staffing issues.
The move comes about a week after a controversial video of officers arresting an OSU student went viral.
Steve Clark, OSU Vice President of Relations and Marketing, says the school has 8 months to figure out a solution.
OSU will be losing about 15 licensed officers from state police.
Clark said OSU already has a campus security component that will remain, but they’ll be looking for another law enforcement partner to fulfill state police’s duties.
Clark said the University will most likely not form its own law enforcement office as it once had decades ago, or like the police department at the University of Oregon.
“To be able to do that going forward would require certainly 4 to 5 to 6 years of training and implementation before we would do that ourselves, and that’s not the time frame we have available,” Clark said.
He says an evaluation committee will be formed with staff and students to help choose a new partner.
Clark said contract with OSP ends next June.
