By Debbie Raney
Burns Times-Herald
In accordance with Senate Bill 111, which was passed during the 74th Oregon Legislative Assembly in 2007, Harney County recently prepared a “Use of Deadly Force Investigation Guidelines.”
According to Harney County District Attorney Tim Colahan, the bill was originally proposed in 2005, but failed. Between 2005 and 2007, Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, “Took the lead” and the bill was passed. The bill creates planning authority in each county to develop a plan concerning the use of deadly force by police officers; authorizes the Department of Justice to make grants for expenses incurred in implementing and revising approved plans; and establishes procedures for law enforcement agencies to follow.
Use of deadly force refers to any incident where the result is serious injury or death. This is not limited to use of firearms or weapons.
The Harney County guidelines were written by a planning authority made up of members of the local law enforcement agencies, as well as a citizen member. Those involved were Colahan, Harney County Sheriff Dave Glerup, Burns and Hines Police Chief Randy Cook, Oregon State Police Sergeant Brian Williams, Harney County Sheriff Deputy Lucas McLain, and citizen member David McDonald.
Colahan told the Harney County Court last week that the group had used policies already in place by other Oregon counties, revising them to fit Harney County’s needs. “The protocol,” said Colahan, “is the same as what the county has done in the past.”
The guidelines include who will be assigned to investigate incidents, the duties of each responding officer, incident scene procedures, interview procedures, and post-investigational actions required.
The guidelines must be approved by two-thirds of the county’s governing bodies, and then approved by Attorney General Meyers. The plan must be returned to the Attorney General by March 31.
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Oregon State Representative Cliff Bentz attended the Harney County Court meeting of March 19, presenting his concerns over water, water rights and related issues that are facing Eastern Oregon.
Bentz told the court that the situation in the Klamath Basin “is a preview of what we’re going to see across the state.” Over the past 25 years, water rights have been disputed in more than 7,000 claims. Bentz said it is anticipated that within the next two years, the final claims will be completed, and the prioritization will begin. “The Owyhee, Silvies, Malheur and John Day systems face the same ESA issues, and the process will repeat itself.”
Bentz gave the members of the court two papers to review — a draft of an Institute for Water and Watersheds Briefing Paper, and a draft of the Headwaters 2 Ocean (H20) initiate. “This is a glimpse of what I found was happening (in the legislature). There is a package of legislation being prepared for the ’09 session that is based on these papers.”
The Headwaters 2 Ocean paper can be viewed at: www1.wrd.state.or.us/pdfs/ Headwaters-2-Ocean-2008-01-10.pdf
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Mark Maliwauki, Harney County Business Development Coordinator, and Jerry Gardner of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, reported to the county court the possibility of recruiting a dairy to the area. Maliwauki and Gardner attended the Tulare, Calif. World Ag Exposition last month, and according to Gardner, an “idea germinated there.”
Due to increased taxes and regulations in California, the state’s dairy farmers seemed to be open to relocating their businesses. Gardner said Harney County needed to inform these farmers that this would be an acceptable area to move to. Primarily, he said the prospective businesses need to know what property is available, that it is zoned properly, that veterinary services are available, what the feed resources are, and where and how the products could be shipped. Using a contact they met in Tulare, and with the use of a descriptive map, Gardner and Maliwauki suggested that representatives of Harney County visit potential dairy farmers in California and present the information “on their turf.”
In addition to providing the dairies with information on Harney County, the representatives would ask that each dairy recommend one or more potential processing companies that the county could set up meetings with.
March 30th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
The “Deadly Force” plan does not need to be submitted to the AG by March 31st. As is clearly shown on the website below
http://www.doj.state.or.us/oregonians/sb111.shtml
The plan must be submitted to the city and county authorities by that date in order to allow them 60 days to review the plan before forwarding it to the AG. This is also only a requirement to be eligible for reimbursement state funding for eligible expenses on July 1 2008.
I think it is a shame that the Burns City Council only choose to take 15 minutes to review this document when the senate allowed for 60 days to properly review it. Some members of the council said they had carefully reviewed the document and the senate bill prior to the meeting, but it is curious that such “careful consideration” by them, and the agency that put together the report, did not reveal that the plan did not have to be submitted to the AG by March 31. I wonder what else was overlooked.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 am
It didn’t take long for me to get lost in the links. I wonder if any officer can think and react any faster when the times comes to use “deadly force?”
Perhaps members of the council will review the document in their own good time. I know for myself, I’ll need to muster up enough determination to click the links again, sift through what is relevant or not, and probably just get sleepy and take a nap.