Police establish station in downtown Eugene
EUGENE, Ore. - Years ago, the Eugene Police Department had a downtown substation near the bus terminal.
In moving the main police station across the Willamette River from City Hall to Country Club Road, the City vowed to restore a police presence downtown.
A block north of the bus mall, police are back in business.
It's a mini-downtown precinct for the nine officers that make up the Eugene police bicycle team.
The big benefit is logistics.
"What it will alleviate them having to do is ride their bicycles back and forth between the new police facility on Country Club and downtown," Lt. Eric Klinko said.
The City leased space on the first floor of Lane Community Colelge's new downtown campus. Police said the less time they are pedaling back and forth between headquarters and downtown to file reports, the more time the cops can be out on the beat.
"I think it shows that the Eugene Police Department is very, uh, takes its commitment very seriously to having the presence downtown," Klinko said.
A community service officer is also part of the staff at the downtown substation. Tonee Webber thinks they'll be dealing a lot with quality of life issues.
"If citizens don't feel safe coming down here, then we've got an issue and we need to work on that," said Webber, the police department's downtown manager.
The station won't have a full-time front counter staff, but Klinko said they will be open to the public Monday through Friday.
Businesses in the area are pleased.
"It'll make it a little more efficient," Walt Hunt at New Odyssey Juice and Java. "They are committed to having the bike officers and the patrols that we have down here, it's not going to change that really."
Tobi Sovak at Noisette said the police presence is welcome.
"The increased security is definitely needed and definitely welcome," Sovak said.
"We want people to be safe," Klinko, "to know that they're safe and to interact with our officers."
Isn`t that wonderful? Now how about The city of Eugene taking responsibility for the bad guys in their city once they`ve been caught. They`ve been passing the buck to the feds for money and the county for the job and the building. That`s unexcusable for a city this big. The city of Eugene is more concerned with how it appears than how it functions. What other conclusion is there? They need to get their head out of their a---- hind parts and build their own jail and the hire the personel to run it. To Hell with the bike paths and the parks for now. What real city doesn`t have their own jail in their budget? This city doesn`t even want to consider it! They just toss their citizens under the bus and turn their heads towards their other pretty buildings and parks and paths while embracing their fantasy of a"progressive" liberal city. It`s very sad. What is it going to take ?
So? The criminals will be afraid and behave? They know they can get out of jail..what a joke. Put the money into the JAIL!!!
Donut Storage?
But this won't help out much if they just catch'em and let'em out more attention needs to be toward keeping them locked up and jailed .
Being right across the street from the bus mall is definitely a plus.Â