590 KUGN has a regular feature in the mornings called "ask the sheriff" or something similar to that where callers get an opportunity to ask questions from Deputy Art regarding traffic and other issues.
I called the show this morning and asked him why is it when they are constantly complaining that they do not have enough deputies to patrol Lane County, and why a deputy for over a week was constantly patrolling and running radar in the parking lot of Lane Community College.
His reply was that Lane Community College asked for their assistance at the beginning of the term to help monitor traffic on campus. He also pointed out that this was to assist LCC security.
Gee, I thought the citizens were asking for their assistance in keeping our neighborhoods safe and that is what our tax dollars were paying for.
With that, I took the opportunity to ask him about LCC security and if we have to stop when they turn their red lights on us.
He said that they do have police powers and they are allowed to stop you on campus but not on 30th Ave.
I was going to ask him how LCC security is different from any other security company, but at that point they hung up on me.
I would also would like to know a little bit more about these "police powers".
Are they sworn police officers? Do they have the same powers as a regular police officer? And why are they allowed to do traffic stops? Does that also mean that they have the power to blow the stop sign with their lights going? Do they have the same training that a sworn police officer has to acquire the police powers?
Why are their vehicles equipped with fixed radar units and why do they have access to your traffic record?
The reason why I even bring up this issue, to my understanding, unless the vehicle has a blue light on it and/or it is an emergency vehicle that they are not allowed to stop someone and detain someone against their will in less they are on the property committing a crime.
In other words, how does campus security differ from the security officers at Valley River Center. Do they also have police powers?
and the point about the sheriff's deputy, Lane County Sheriff's Department and the city of Eugene both say that they do not have the manpower to respond to burglar alarms and they refused to respond to an alarm unless it is witnessed by someone but they do have the time to sit on a campus parking lot all day.
Just wondering
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