Balkanizing public safety.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Eugene municipal prosecutor Dan Barkovic proposes what looks like a sensible reordering of city priorities in the wake of Lane County District Attorney Doug Harcleroad's decision to stop prosecuting many crimes. When the Eugene City Council considers Barkovic's plan on July 25, however, it should focus on the larger context: the balkanization of public safety programs in Lane County, a destructive trend to which the city's new prosecutorial priorities will contribute.

Harcleroad announced in May that his office would no longer prosecute people accused of many non-violent misdemeanors. He simply doesn't have the staff. Even if the cases could be prosecuted, those convicted would spend little or no time in Lane County's chronically overcrowded jail. Harcleroad decided to concentrate his resources on more serious crimes, and let people who commit a variety of small-time property crimes off the hook.

Small-time property crime, however, is a big-time problem - just ask the 4,066 people in Eugene who reported the theft of property worth $750 or less last year. Barkovic, with the support of Eugene Municipal Judge Wayne Allen, proposes that his office start prosecuting four types of crime that the county DA once handled: car break-ins, thefts of property valued at $750 or less, possession of burglary tools and failure to report as a sex offender.

Picking up an estimated 400 cases a year means that the city prosecutor's office would have to rearrange its own priorities. Barkovic proposed that some crimes currently prosecuted as misdemeanors be treated as violations, which are punishable by fines or community service rather than jail time. Whether it's the city or the county, there's only so much prosecutorial firepower to be deployed.

Harcleroad's decision sent ripples through Eugene's municipal court and prosecutor's office, illustrating the tight linkages in the public safety system. Police, prosecutors, courts, corrections, probation and parole are connected - weakness in one affects all the others.

These connections are becoming frayed. When Springfield voters approved the construction of a city jail, they accepted a degree of separation from the countywide corrections system. And if Eugene begins prosecuting misdemeanors that have been dropped by Lane County, a degree of uniformity in law enforcement will be lost. Some crimes would result in jail time in Springfield but not in other jurisdictions; a person arrested for low-value theft would be prosecuted in Eugene but not elsewhere in Lane County.

It's understandable that Eugene and Springfield, having waited for years for a comprehensive solution to the problem of how to pay for public safety programs, would decide to address their own problems as best they can. Yet the cities' go-it-alone efforts undermine support for a comprehensive solution. If Springfield opens its own jail, people there will lose a sense of urgency about the lack of capacity in the county's corrections system. And as long as car break-ins are punished in Eugene, people there will be less concerned about providing the district attorney with the resources to prosecute non-violent misdemeanors.

Finding support for a comprehensive solution is hard enough already. Earlier this year the Eugene City Council refused to allow a proposal for a countywide public safety district to move forward, after the Springfield City Council had narrowly granted its approval. Enthusiasm for the district was never great, except when compared to the enthusiasm for other ways of raising money for public safety programs. And now, having blocked the progress of the only live proposal to strengthen the countywide public safety system, Eugene is preparing to go its own way on certain prosecutions.

Patchwork public safety is better than none at all. But patchwork solutions are a response to a failure to create and sustain a uniform, efficient public safety system for the entire community. Whatever happens to Barkovic's proposal, that larger problem still must be addressed.