The State Police

Among the various semi-functional police agencies to be found in the State of Oregon, the Oregon State Police are in dire need of a complete overhaul.

Severely crippled by our last several governors, the State Police at times seem to be pre-occupied with their union and just how far they can advance within the hierarchy instead of producing a maximum effort to protect the citizens.

The Oregon State Police as we currently know them should be completely dismantled and reorganized.

The crime labs should be maintained at full or improved levels, and a select group of the best trained investigators should be kept ready and available to assist county and municipal police agencies upon request in difficult cases, similar in function to Florida's FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement).

The remainder should be should be placed in a newly formed Oregon Highway Patrol, and sent to the State and Federal Highway to bring things under control.

Cars and trucks routinely cruise 10 or more miles per hour faster after crossing into Oregon than they do in our neighboring states.

Reorganization of rank is also highly recommended, with the vast majority  of officers assigned the rank of patrolman. When the absolute minimum of supervisory ranks are filled, patrolman due for advancement would be granted pay increases in grade.

Contrary to most officers beliefs, we do not need to equip our officers with assorted fully automatic weapons. The general cry that "we must have greater firepower than the perps" is a large amount of BS. What we need is officers equipped with a few decent 30 cal. scope mounted rifles and the training to say that the bullet is going to hit this individual in this particular location and do so consistently. 350 to 1500 round per minute firearms are basically "squirt guns" and have a tendency to kill or wound innocent bystanders as opposed to one or more well placed shots.

By the way, instead of equipping our officers with "Kevlar" vests, they need to have vests composed of ceramic plates. Kevlar vests offer no protection from knives, arrows, high powered hand guns or high speed rifle bullets.