Eugene Police Debuts Own Press

Emboldened by President Trump’s July 24 executive order titled “Ending Crime And Disorder On America’s Street” and the fact that the Eugene, Oregon City Council is on break following a contentious meeting about houselessness in the city, the Eugene Police Department EPD appears to be escalating their efforts to sweep the streets — and they now have their own “press” to document it.

On Aug. 13, Double Sided Media was made aware of a video posted to YouTube by local documentary filmmaker Tim Lewis that showed him being confronted for documenting the Eugene Police Department’s ongoing criminalization of houseless people living at Washington-Jefferson Park. 

‘Back Up or I’m Going to Take You to Jail’

The five-minute-and-thirty-second-long video, filmed by the co-director of Pickaxe (1999), shows him being threatened with arrest by Eugene police officer Jackson Stramler if he didn’t back away; meanwhile, another videographer wearing a bulletproof vest with “PRESS” on the front and back was left alone. 

The videographer with “PRESS” on his bulletproof vest was identified by DSM as Michael Rea, the department’s public information program coordinator. 

To be clear: Rea is not a member of the press but an employee of the Eugene Police Department.

Lewis, after being confronted by the EPD, walked toward Rea and had a short conversation on video:

“What press are you with, sir,” Lewis asked.

“Eugene Police Department,” Rea replied.

“Oh, mkay, so you got your own media?”

“I’m with the public information department,” Rea replied, looking somewhat puzzled and also listening to what officers—colleagues—were telling him.  

“Ok.”

“So I go out and I film the happenings and then I share this with all the local media,” Rea explained.

“But I can’t get close like you,” Lewis said. “What do you think about that?”

“I think that you’d have to talk to the officers about that.”

“Well, I have,” Lewis said. “They said they’re going to arrest me. Are they going to arrest you? 

“No, I—”

“Probably not, right.”

The cops arresting the houseless individual started talking to Rea, and he struggled to listen, eventually moving away. 

“Yeah, Michael,” Lewis said, “Listen to the officer.” 

To the officer talking to Rea, Lewis said, “I’m just trying to get things clear so I can understand what the hell’s going on.” 

Lewis, in talking with DSM, said the incident was “disturbing” and “pissed me off” because of how “overt” the EPD was being. 

On their Facebook page, the EPD boasted about the day’s activity, adding that “according to the effort’s supervisors, numerous people expressed their appreciation for the special enforcement effort.” The post went on to encourage local businesses to complete “trespass letters of consent,” which, according to the post, makes the EPD’s enforcement of trespass and unlawful behavior more “effective.”

What Experts Say

DSM, concerned by the EPD’s cosplay as members of the press, spoke to journalism experts who all had never seen this before and agreed that this is bad. 

For one, there’s a “blur of the line” between government and the press, as Caroline Hendrie of the Society of Professional Journalists told DSM. “It is misleading for someone to wear gear marked ‘press’ when they are actually working for the very government agency they appear to be covering,” said Hendrie. 

Hendrie, specifically referencing Lewis’ video, said:

“In this instance, as shown in the video, police officers allowed a police PIO sporting a vest marked ‘press’ to record them from close range even as they threatened to arrest another person for the same activity. This disparate treatment would be evident to anyone on the scene — undermining trust in the police. Meanwhile, viewers of the video taken by the public information officer would be in the dark about this double standard.”

Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation called this “a new level of abuse.” He explained:

“As the EPD PIO website puts it, PIOs are supposed to connect ‘media and the staff member most connected with an incident or topic’ in order to provide ‘accurate and timely information.’ In other words, they’re supposed to help journalists, not hinder them. Police officers obstructing lawful journalism and giving their own publicly funded propagandists the exclusive right to record them up close is unconstitutional, un-American, and absurd, and I very much doubt the taxpayers of Eugene ever intended to fund these kinds of anti-press antics.”

While it does not appear the EPD has violated any laws, the FBI, in 2022, had to settle a lawsuit in which an agent posed as an Associated Press journalist in order to get a suspect to inadvertently download surveillance software onto their computer. 

“This is a very different situation but that case underscores the problems with law enforcement officers posing as journalists,” Stern said. “The clearer legal issue here is that police do not appear to have had any basis whatsoever to threaten the actual journalist with arrest for filming them from up close. The constitutional right to record police has been upheld by virtually every appellate circuit and laws requiring journalists to keep a distance from police have repeatedly been struck down by courts as unconstitutional, including an Indiana law just last week.”  

The Police Response

We reached out to the department’s public information director, Melinda McLaughlin, who provided a statement that referenced the aforementioned press release shared to the department’s Facebook page and included edited footage from Rea’s filming:

“The videographer was told to stand back during police activity and was warned for interfering multiple times.

The EPD employee was staffed for this assignment and therefore part of the EPD team involved in the operation. The operation is detailed below in the news release we sent out.”

The department, when sent DSM’s list of questions, followed up with another statement:

“He is an employee of EPD, staffed on assignment for this operation. He was inside the activity area, so for safety precautions, we require him to wear a vest, go through briefing, and comply with all officer instructions. He is capturing video for purposes of sending post-operation footage to media. People don’t always know what “PIO” stands for, so ‘Press’ identifies him as someone not involved in making arrests and not a police officer.” 

Public Mistrust

DSM spoke to public relations expert Jared Meade, the founder and principal at Rayne Strategy Group, who said he was bewildered “as to why a member of a government communications department would identify themselves as a member of the press.” 

Meade, whose practice is centered on ethics and transparency, said that a government employee identifying themselves as press is “misleading” and “gives a false sense of independence.” 

“In a time when trust between the public and our law enforcement agencies is on the decline, transparency is paramount,” he said. “The PIO in the video did identify himself once approached by the other videographer, but by that point, there was already confusion and trust had been compromised.”

Meade concluded:

“As PR professionals, we face ethical decisions daily. Sometimes we get it wrong and there should be some grace given, especially to those just starting in their careers. However, when an ethical issue, such as the one in the video, has been identified, we must own the mistake, be transparent about how it happened and then show what policies have been put in place to make sure it never happens again. If we don’t address them, these ethical lapses can become a slippery slope that shifts from a one-time problem to a core part of organizational culture.”