The Mountain community will reap a small benefit of increased Oregon State
Police presence in coming months.

A boost from the governor and legislative leaders has provided OSP with
staffing increases to meet the coverage needs in metro and secondary state
highways, according to OSP Superintendent Timothy McLain.

“During the last six years there were several challenges while OSP ran 20-
hour daily coverage in this (Portland metro) area,” McLain said. “We greatly
appreciate how many of our area partner law enforcement agencies tried to
help fill in the gap caused by our lack of availability to respond. Our recent
staffing level increases have now placed us to the point of being there to help
the public and fellow officers when we are called.”

Although no staff increases are anticipated for the Mountain community –
presently four OSP troopers operate full-time out of Government Camp from
east Gresham to Warm Springs Reservation – Public Information Officer Lt.
Gregg Hastings indicated this area will benefit.

“The new metro staffing will increase our ability to respond to outlying areas,”
Hastings told The Mountain Times. “We will better be able to extend (to our
area) and assist the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department in high priority
situations.”

However, there are no immediate staff increases anticipated for the Mountain
community.

“This is another important step in reversing the declining state police presence
on our roads,” Governor Kulongoski said in an OSP press release. “It took
years to reverse this trend but Oregon remains on the path to ensure our
communities have 24/7 coverage across the state.”

As of April 15 the Portland Area Command office and Tualatin worksite had 36
sworn state troopers assigned to patrol approximately 575 highway miles in
Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, according to Portland Area
Commander Lt. Jason Bledsoe. Prior to July 2007, those offices had 22
troopers.

“The new recruit troopers added to our office not only is helping us return to
24/7 coverage, it is also putting visible OSP patrol presence on secondary
state highway areas where we have crash and crime problems that were
infrequently being patrolled on a consistent basis,” Bledsoe said. “My hope is
that our renewed presence will alleviate the call load pressure on our law
enforcement partners, provide an additional resource to these agencies
throughout the night if needed, and help make our area roads safer.”

Department staffing increases helped OSP troopers increase statewide patrol-
related contacts last year. In 2008, more than 237,000 traffic contacts were
reported, a 10 percent increase from 2007. OSP DUII arrests also jumped
from 4,211 (2007) to 4,478 (2008).