Giusto on State Police Funding Proposal: Rope a Dope or Knock Out Idea?

February 17, 2011

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Oregon State Police could learn a few tricks from “the Greatest.” Mohammad Ali, truly the Greatest of All Time, knew one thing about his opponents and the ring.  He had to be smarter than they were because from time to time he might not be tougher. Even with exceptional training, conditioning and superior physical skills he knew he needed a fight plan to continually stay on top. He promised he would “move like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” He did. But only after he executed the first part of his plan.

Ali’s strategy looks so simple to us now. When he moved from flashing fists and ballet dancer-like feet to a lumbering, tired and easy to hit fighter you can imagine the hope it raised in his opponent. Ali coined this his “Rope-A-Dope” strategy. The game was to entice his opponent to follow him to the ropes in the middle to late rounds of a fight by appearing momentarily dazed. Once there, Ali would act like he was in real trouble. 

Heartened by the turn of events, his opponent punched wildly trying to end the fight.  Ali would cover his head of body with his hands and arms and wait until his opponent wore himself out. Ali drew the hopeful Dope to the Ropes with what looked to be a promising result and then finished him off. Like a man crawling in the desert sands to the oasis, Ali created the illusion there was promise and then dashed it.

In 1980 the Oregon State Police were the political dopes who were led to the financial ropes by the Oregon political leadership.

Created in 1931 and often referred to as the “Super Police”, the Oregon State Police were given broad policing under the authority of Oregon law authority in Traffic, Criminal Law and Fish and Wildlife enforcement,  Majority funding for the State Police was aimed traffic enforcement the agencies largest division. That specific funding was locked in the Oregon State Highway Trust Fund and was protected by Oregon’s Constitution for nearly 50 years.  Law makers at the time saw the logical connection between a highway revenue source and funding for a state police agencies.  And so it was until 1980.
Time passed and the State Police Traffic Division grew.  The greatest growth in the State Police to came in the early and mid part of the 1970s. I was hired in October of 1974.  In that single year over 150 troopers were added to state police ranks.  Much of the funding for the increase in troopers came from a Federal Funding program that added police officers, deputies and troopers all over the nation.  Of course, as all good federal programs do, that funding ended and the state was on the hook to pick up the costs.  Of course that worked at least in the traffic division because State Police were getting a reasonable slice of the highway trust fund.  All was well it seemed. 


State Police leadership wore the apolitical badge with pride.  In those days it was never very long between statements from which ever the Superintendent and his senior staff touting lack of need to get involved in the politics of supporting  state police within the legislature and beyond.  That included developing any real political skills within the agency. 

After all we had friends in the legislature and the thought was they would take care of state police issues and most importantly state police budget issues. And for the most part in those days the Mission of the State Police was well defended and that was especially true when it came to traffic enforcement funding.  Remember the State Police is in fact the Governor’s and the Oregon Legislature’s Department.  It seemed that executive and legislative loyalty to the agency would make politics irrelevant.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.

In the mean time those broad policing powers granted to the State Police grew the number of troopers assigned to such areas of state police responsibility such as criminal investigation and Fish and Wildlife enforcement.  These functions,  however, had to be paid for out of Oregon’s General Fund. That made us the enemy with some politicians.

Past Governor’s and legislative leadership have been of  little help .  After the days of Governor Hatfield, Governor McCall,Governor Straub and Governor Atiyeh the Oregon State Police have had exceptional support in the area of lip service but have been sold out politically time and time again.  The legislature has not been any better in terms of meaningful support generally.  Oh sure, legislative leadership has always demonstrated a remarkable confidence in the State Police by heaping on the statutory enforcement responsibilities in a myriad of areas and expressing great confidence, never sending any money to support it.

Just prior to 1980 elements of a perfect political storm were forming. The oncoming recession, a calculated run on the state’s highway trust fund by big construction interests, clueless state police leadership, and the Rope-a Dope legislative strategy were converging. Then in 1980, the Oregon State Police traffic enforcement funding was moved to the political shark tank, Oregon’s General Fund. State Police leadership were mere appetizers to the great whites swimming in those waters. 


The negative results were almost immediate. State Police troopers began disappearing from Portland Metro freeways. State Police offices began disappearing not in the metro area but across the state. By the mid 1980’s State Police troopers ended their presence as the primary traffic enforcement agency in the metro area. Smokey Bear hats which symbolized meaningful traffic safety, virtually disappeared from the Portland area. The statewide 24 hour patrols were pared back.

This fact is even more problematic when you consider just the opposite dynamic is out work in the states of Washington and California where funding for the Washington State Patrol and California Highway Patrol staffing are still protected by dedicated funding. (Note to Reader: Patrol and Police are exact references with great distinction and dramatic difference in policing responsibility). Lets’ explore the difference.

The argument for asking voter to re-amend the Oregon Constitution and return the State Police traffic safety function to a dedicated funding source seems like a no-brainer. But wait. 


The State Police have been their own worst enemy since the days of the Oregon Highway Fund days. While their overall policing role was being reshaped by a declining percentage share of Oregon’s General Fund, State Police leadership refused to consider restructuring the scope of their policing responsibilities.  While The number of state police troopers continued to shrink from nearly 1000 in 1975 sworn to less than 600 by the year 2000, State Police leadership refused to see that they were being led to the ropes.

The term trooper needs definition. In State Police lingo trooper refers to a rank not a job description.  Yes troopers work traffic enforcement wearing the famous Smokey Bear hats but  when state police existed in the Oregon Highway Trust Fund they were also do are assigned to Criminal Investigation, Fish and Wildlife Enforcement, Polygraph Examination, Arson Investigation, and Criminal Forensics.

The difference was that, other than traffic enforcement, everything else was paid for from the general fund. So in 1980 when traffic troopers– the most costly of all State Police functions– moved from the Highway Fund State,  Police began competing against the State Police.  

They were no match for the political sharks who jealously guarded their share of the General Fund.  All the promises of  adequate funding immediately were forgotten.  Past performance certainly did not guarantee future results.  To make matters worse the staunch state police allies in the legislature began to disappear. But OSP marched on with the can-do attitude when in fact they could not and should not have tried to do so.

Statewide arguments with county sheriffs began to erupt. The point of contention was figuring out what what state police should be doing given the declining resources.  Sheriffs argued that state police needed to turn over criminal investigation to them and state police should focus on highway patrol and criminal forensics. In other words narrow the state police mission and restructure the agency. 

Year after year the state police basically refused. Year after year they should have aggressively pursued agency restructure and bring recommended statutory changes to assist the legislature in making those changes .

Worse yet, not one Governor nor any legislature over the past 30 years has taken the issue seriously.  None has demanded that the state police review their overall mission and change it.  If the political leadership won’t reasonably fund such broad functions then order a change in structure and force a change in mission. But it is hard to tell your police department that you real don’t support what they do even though you won’t fund all the elements you have ordered in the pages of the Oregon Revised Statutes.

But the funding rub is why this issue has gone no where.  Since the large majority of the General Fund income tax revenue comes out of the metropolitan areas, state police statewide operations in the rural parts of Oregon are heavily subsidized.  The Portland area gets almost nothing in uniform police services for the income tax revenue they pony up to the General Funds.  Only the State Police Crime Lab services represent a true value for the dollar generated.

In the meantime the majority of the votes in the legislature are from the rural parts of Oregon where the state police remaining there represent a large percentage of the police presence on the roads and otherwise.  So why would those folks getting subsidized cops vote to change the formula?  In the minds of rural and some suburban legislators, finally the metropolitan area is doing something for them.  

The Governor’s 2010-2012 budget proposal to put the State Police Traffic Safety function back into the Highway Trust fund is not a bad idea, it’s just an unrealistic one. Again it avoids dealing with the primary questions first:  Does Oregon need the State Police of 2011 to be the the same “Super Police” of 1931 or something different? 

So before we go the video tape and re-run a sure defeat at the polls let’s do the following.

* Convene a legislative commission to consider the mission of the Oregon State Police. The purpose to reconfirm the state police mission or change it. Do not assign this issue solely to a group of law enforcement types. They will make recommendations influenced by the state police that are at the edges of the real issue at hand and will get the same tired results. I have seen no less than ten of these over my 34 year law enforcement career.

*Consider whether the Oregon State Police needs to be spun off from its current traffic enforcement responsibilities. Perhaps its time to create the Oregon State Patrol focused funded and empowered in statute to concentrate on traffic safety and only traffic safety. Then decide what the remainder of the Oregon State Police should be to fill voids in law enforcement statewide and the willingness to fund it out of those duties from the General Fund. Different structured assignments for different regions or smaller divisions of the state.

* Create a ballot measure to amend the Oregon Constitution for 2012 that demonstrates a thorough examination of the state police mission. Dedicate a funding source and lock it away . Resist the urge to run a measure that drops the state police traffic enforcement back into competition with the existing resources within the highway. To do otherwise will spell certain defeat for the measure just as when the question failed during the past decade regardless of the party line to “make it happen” this time.


There are only two things the Governors’ State Police budget strategy can be.  The first is a real attempt to bring state wide police service back to a respectable level and one that actually can help his police department protect Oregon citizens.  The other is the Ali model of budgeting. One that is meant as a delaying tactic to wear out Oregon citizens against the same ballot ropes the state has led them to time and again with the Oregon Sales Tax question. So when this budget comes off the ropes voters won’t be fooled, the big money won’t be on the side of the good guys but the state police budget will take a big and our safety will suffer a TKO.



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