Law enforcement departments including the WA State Patrol, Olympia P.D. and Evergreen police officers gather with firefighter/emt’s for an active shooter police/fire training drill in C dorm on Weds., Jul. 23, 2014. The responders practiced approaching the scene safely before responding to a staged emergency with student actors.
By Forest Hunt
• President Bridges said the needs assessment package for Police Services, including rifles, crowd control equipment, and two new officers is “essential to the mission of the college.”
• Funding for crowd control equipment was denied by the state, and now it is unclear if it has been or will be purchased.
• Funding for two new officers requested, state provided funding for one. That leaves Police Services with nine total officers, the college intends to use funding to hire tenth.
• The Journal has obtained and verified remarks from John Carmichael that delve more into why rifles were purchased.
• See the bottom of this page for documents used in reporting this article.
PART 1: Who, What, When, and How
Bridges Seeks State Funding For Rifles and Crowd Control
“If they both opt for department-issued rifles, we’ll need to buy one more,” said John Carmichael in an email just before the Journal went to press, almost as an afterthought. He was talking about about two officers at Police Services finishing their training and preparing to be armed with AR-15 rifles. Police Services now has ten officers (if you’re keeping up on the math: that’s up from nine, but we’ll get to that). Seven rifles were purchased, and one officer brings a personal rifle in to work; that leaves two officers without rifles. Why does each officer need their own rifle? Carmichael claims that Evergreen police “can’t share weapons,” because they are only certified to use specific guns.
But rifles were always only one part of a larger story.
In August 2017 when former Director of Police Services Stacy Brown requested rifles for police, it wasn’t all she was requesting. The rifle request was part of a larger package of equipment for Police Services labeled a “needs assessment” that she projected would cost the college $393,000 annually.
With some caveats, President George Bridges approved most of the requests in the needs assessment package, including two new full-time equivalent police officers, crowd control equipment, purchase of a subscription to a policy manual updater called Lexipol, more cameras around campus, new door-locking systems and alarms, modernized radio infrastructure, transition of vehicles to leases, and new laptops.
Less than two months later, in October 2017, Bridges used a supplemental budget request to seek increased funding for Police Services to fulfill the needs assessment, including funding for two additional officers, rifles, and crowd control.
In a signed letter headlining the document, Bridges stated that the items in the request were prioritized because they were the “most essential to the mission of the college.”
A supplemental budget request is “an opportunity to make technical corrections” and respond to “emerging issues” that were not covered by the prior years budget, explained Holly Joseph, Evergreen’s Chief Budget Officer.
Somewhat ominously, the budget request cited “anticipated activity on-campus including from outside groups” as justification for seeking to purchase crowd control equipment, going on to state that Evergreen is currently unable to “de-escalate a situation,” without offering specifics.
In fact, police use of crowd control equipment has escalated situations on the Evergreen Olympia campus in the past. After a 2008 Dead Prez concert in the Campus Recreation Center, Evergreen police called in Olympia Police Department officers who attacked a crowd of peaceful Evergreen protesters with batons and pepper spray. Subsequently, the assembled students infamously flipped a police car.
The budget request did not specify what kind of crowd control equipment the college would buy, beyond that it would be “approved.” Brown gave “OC 10 pepper spray and PepperBalls” as examples in the initial needs assessment.
PepperBalls are less-than-lethal weapons that shoot fragmenting projectiles containing a substance similar to pepper spray.
Though advertised as non-lethal, the projectile weapons have been known to kill and cause grievous bodily harm. In 2004, police killed a 21 year old Emerson student in Boston using PepperBalls in a crowd control situation. Also in 2004, UC Davis Police hit a student in the eye with a PepperBall, causing him to lose an athletic scholarship and drop out of school, according to the LA Times. Locally a Cooper Point Journal reporter was injured by a PepperBall while covering a protest late last year, though they were not seriously harmed.
In total, Bridges requested an additional $400,000 per year through 2021 for Police Services to fund the needs assessment package, including $17,000 for goods and services, $25,000 for travel, approximately $340,000 for personnel, and a one time $22,000 labeled “capital outlays” likely intended to fund rifles and crowd control.
State Rebuffs Needs Assessment, College Forges Ahead Anyway
All of the above was just what President Bridges requested. What did the state legislature actually fund? According to the conference report approving the supplemental budget request, not much. In that March 2018 bill they provided $149,000 for one additional police officer and one part time administrative assistant. Both have now been hired. Joseph Gallardo was hired as a new police officer Aug.13, 2018 and has just completed training. Marly Holbrook was hired as an administrative assistant for police services Nov. 19, 2018.
Police Services had funding for nine officers at the end of 2017. Bridges sought funding for two new officers to bring the total up to eleven. With one additional officer funded through the budget request, that brings Police Services up to funding for ten officers.
There were briefly ten officers to match that funding, until one quit at the end of 2018, bringing Police Services back down to nine actual officers. “We will fill that vacant position,” said Carmichael, underlining the college’s commitment to ten officers. He clarified that the college had dropped its goal to bring Police Services up to eleven officers and would not seek funding for additional police personnel in the 2019-21 biennial budget.
Not hiring an eleventh police officer was a key demand of the Industrial Workers of the World South Sound General Education Union, which has also demanded Evergreen hire two new professors, one in the arts and one in political economy.
The college did, however, forge ahead in search of money for all the other equipment requested by Police Services in spite of not receiving state funds to do so.
Joseph said that, with the college’s current financial situation, any new initiatives with ongoing funding in one area of the budget would inevitably lead to budget reductions elsewhere.
In a section of the supplemental budget request seeking to clarify what Evergreen would do if the state did not fund the needs assessment package for police, the document stated the school “could only fund these needs by eliminating needed staff positions necessary to student success.”
Several items from the needs assessment were purchased before the supplemental budget request process completed in March 2018.
That includes two infrared body cameras purchased via express mail ($45.29) from “stuntcams.com” in September 2017 for a total of $425, likely using Police Services annual goods and services budget.
The body cameras “were purchased, but they are not of really good quality,” so they are not being used, said Joseph.
Rifles and bullets were purchased November of 2017 for just under $11,000. How they were paid for is still unclear. Chief Budget Officer Holly Joseph was unable to comment before press time.
Other items from the needs assessment were purchased after the state refused to pay for them.
According to Joseph, the college entered into a contract with Lexipol in Fall Quarter using “Carry Forward Funding.” The private company will be updating and revising Police Services Standard Operating Procedures. The cost to the college is still unclear.
Carry Forward Funding consists mainly of “unspent salary and benefits” from the previous year said Joseph.
It is unclear if crowd control equipment has been purchased. A source in police services claims that Evergreen police don’t have any. Bridges deferred comment to Evergreen’s public relations officer, Allison Anderson, who neither confirms nor denies that crowd control equipment has been or will be purchased. An ongoing public records request has not yet uncovered any crowd control specific purchases beyond a baton for a new officer. The request remains open.
New door locks and alarms, additional campus cameras, vehicle leases, and modernized radio infrastructure have not yet been funded by the college. The radio infrastructure would need to go through a more complex process via the Capital Budget, according to Joseph. Given Bridges’ assertion in his supplemental budget request that these items are “essential to the college,” it’s safe to assume these are ongoing priorities for the administration.
Reached for comment with questions regarding the needs assessment package, Bridges again deferred to his Public Relations Officer, who offered no answers before press time.
Police Budget
Questions about police purchases often raise the issue of how Evergreen police are funded. Let’s start with some clarity on one important point: Police Services is funded by the college like any other department. Its funding comes from the Operating Budget.
According to the college’s “Budget 101” document, the Operating Budget funding breakdown is approximately 39% state appropriations and 61% tuition. “The state appropriation and tuition get merged together all into one” before they are distributed to departments, said Chief Budget Officer Joseph.
Police Services accounted for 2.15% of the Operating Budget in 2013-15 at a total of $2,449,923. With an additional officer and administrative positions, this will now likely be a couple hundred thousand dollars higher.
PART 2: Why
Bridges and College Administration Stonewall, the Journal Persists Anyways
None of this information has come easy.
Three interviews with senior administration, one in-person interaction with Bridges, countless email threads, persistent phone calls and conversations, and consistent attempts to reach all levels of leadership for comment on this decision have yielded a fair amount of reluctant responses, but few details.
In spite of this, the Journal has been able to find many answers to most of the major questions surrounding the needs assessment package and rifle decision through public records requests and the reporting process.
But the most important question still remains: Why was this decision made? After almost five months of asking, no one in senior administration has chosen to answer.
Both Carmichael and the Vice President of Public Relations Sandra Kaiser have emphasized that President Bridges made the decision to purchase rifles and other police equipment, and that only he can speak to his rationale for doing so.
However, each time Bridges was reached for comment, he directed me to his Public Relations representative, who would once again confirm Bridges made the decision, but clarify I would need to speak to Bridges to find out why. Thus creating a never-ending circle of silence.
In a recent interview, Public Relations Officer Anderson insisted that the detailed questions I had been asking her since September couldn’t be addressed because she was not “prepared.” She insisted they be discussed at a future meeting. When I asked her to schedule that meeting she said with a smirk, “I can’t promise you anything.” It wasn’t the first time.
The end result of all this runaround is that senior administration have not even provided any basic arguments for why the rifle decision was made, starving the community of any robust debate and dialogue.
But debate can’t be suppressed forever.
The Journal has obtained and verified direct remarks concerning the rifle decision spoken by Carmichael in a private meeting. While Carmichael is now in charge of overseeing the police on campus, he was not in that position when Bridges authorized the purchase of rifles, and his remarks do not give direct insight into the decision. They do, however, finally offer the closest the community has gotten to a good faith dialog from senior leadership, even if it was not publicly given.
At first in an interview about the obtained remarks Carmichael said, “I acknowledge the general accuracy of what you’re saying,” but later wrote in an email he does not recognize ”a few of the statements,” likely referring to several remarks he sought to clarify in the interview which do not appear here, but may be included in future reporting.
All of these remarks are direct quotes and have thus been verified with the highest degree of certainty.
State Interest in Police Rifles At Evergreen
In the obtained remarks Carmichael makes the argument that the rifle decision was “a forgone conclusion” and the “legislative interest in it just determined it.” There had certainly been rhetorical pressure from the Republican minority in the legislature. In June 2017, a couple months before the rifles were approved by Bridges, he was grilled by a Republican State Senator during a working session over the Evergreen communities decision not to arm its police with rifles. “We’re looking into that,” Bridges said at the time.
But did the legislature force Evergreen into this decision? That idea can be quickly dismissed.
“In my experience, I have not seen where the legislature has a particular initiative that they’re like: and you will do this,” said Chief Budget Officer Holly Joseph. Usually, she says, “they really are going to work off of what we have asked for.”
Regarding the supplemental budget request to fund the police equipment and personnel Joseph said, “Did they direct us what to ask for? No, not that I’m aware of. That would be awkward.”
Besides, given that Police Services had been pushing to get rifles for over ten years, the internal motive for the decision is clear. If the request by police, approval by Bridges, and strong language in the supplemental budget request deeming rifles “essential to the mission of the college” isn’t enough to confirm that police services and Bridges are the prime movers in this decision, then the fact the state declined to fund the rifles certainly is.
New Active Shooter Procedure
Carmichael also pointed out how the procedures for an active shooter situation have changed. Previously Evergreen Police Services officers were not supposed to go into a building in pursuit of an active shooter. Instead they had to wait for the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office — which Police Services is a part of — to arrive and form a team. Carmichael said since Evergreen police would have to wait for backup from the Sheriff’s Office, who had rifles anyways, administration decided in 2009 that rifles weren’t necessary.
“Since that time, the protocol has changed a lot,” Carmichael continued. Now officers can directly engage an active shooter individually or in pairs before a backup team arrives.
Carmichael emphasized “there is no guarantee” rifles or more officers could stop an active shooter, but also said, “If we’re going to ask them to do that,” then “I think a rifle is a reasonable thing for them to ask us for.”
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office Policy Manual confirms officers are now empowered to decide themselves if they will advance on the scene, although it also states, “It is highly recommended that any advance on a suspect be made in teams of two or more.”
Sgt. Dave Odegaard of the Thurston County Sheriff’s said he agreed with the policy change and thought it could potentially save lives, but it would only be appropriate if more then one officer responded, and only in a situation where backup is “more than ten minutes away.” He clarified that the Thurston County Sheriff’s on its own should be able to respond to an active shooter situation on the Olympia Evergreen campus in “8 or 9 minutes.”
Stacy Brown stated Police Services did not have enough officers “to ensure two on duty at all times” in her initial 2017 needs assessment that included the rifle request. It’s unclear how much one additional officer will change that.
Thus, even with this policy change, it is unlikely that Evergreen Police will be responding to an active shooter before other officers with rifles arrive on campus.
Professor Emeritus and former member of the Police Community Review Board Michael Vavrus pointed out that even if the active shooter procedures have changed, it wasn’t what most of the community was focused on when they rejected the rifle proposal in 2009.
“The strong sentiment on campus 10 years ago was opposition to the militarized arming of campus police, not on some technicality about entering classrooms,” said Vavrus. “Have we as a college community become so socialized into a fear-based media of gun violence that students and faculty are simply willing to trust authoritarianism over transparent public decision-making?” He pointed out that the May 2017 gun threat was from a man in New Jersey and no gun violence ever transpired on campus.
“Overreaction to Fearsome Risks”
In October, Carmichael did vaguely suggest that the 2017 gun threat by New Jersey resident Robert Kerekes was one potential reason for arming Police Services with rifles, referencing “outside threats the college was receiving.”
It’s safe to say that the tumultuous events of Spring 2017, along with the projection of Evergreen onto the national stage and into the crosshairs of the far right has changed the psychology of the campus, both in administration and among students, staff, and faculty.
Nora Marie Mahto Knutson, one of the coordinators of the student group Coalition Against Sexual Violence, said that the argument police need rifles to protect campus from an active shooter is “based on fear.”
As far as finding a reason why rifles were purchased, fear is not a bad contender. A Harvard Kennedy School of Government study called “Overreaction to Fearsome Risks” argues that communities and governments often “exaggerate the benefit of preventative, risk-reducing” measures when responding to high consequence, low probability events, like an active shooter.
Writing for the Washington Post in 2018 about fear of active shooters in high schools, Harvard Instructor David Ropeik said “the statistical likelihood of any given public school student being killed by a gun, in school, on any given day since 1999 was roughly 1 in 614,000,000.” In 2009 former Evergreen Academic Budget Dean Ken Tubbutt calculated the probability of an active shooter event “on a specific campus” is “once in every 3,140 years.”
“If terrible outcomes are easy to visualize, large-scale changes in thought and behavior are to be expected, even if the statistical risks are dramatically” low, the “Fearsome Risks” study concludes.
Knutson expressed empathy for those who support the rifle decision on campus, but points out that no one’s opinion was actually ever considered. “This decision to increase the weapons that police have on campus was made in the name of student safety, but without any student input,” Knutson said.
Pattern of Racist Actions At Evergreen Police Services
Reporting by the Journal has revealed a long term pattern of racist actions perpetrated by Police Services in past years, bringing into question the idea that arming Evergreen police with rifles would make everyone on campus safer and suggesting the opposite could be true.
There have been several high profile cases, including the arbitrary overnight detainment and interrogation of two black students in 2017, and the arrest of a black student who broke up a fight during the 2008 Dead Prez concert, which initiated the peaceful protest that Olympia Police Officers later attacked with batons and pepper spray.
Nicolas Jeffreys said campus police treat black students at Evergreen differently. He said “they treat them badly, don’t talk to them,” continuing “I worry about other people who look like me being murdered by campus police because the AR-15s, it’s a hair trigger.”
Knutson added that it’s dangerous to forget the history and reality of police in the United States. “Police get away with murder in this country,” she said.
Nearby Portland State University Police shot and killed 45 year old Navy veteran Jason Washington in July 2018, a black student attending that university. The officers who shot Washington were not charged with any crime, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. The school’s Student Union is now calling for the disarming of their campus police, according to Inside Higher Ed.
In the obtained remarks Carmichael admitted “some people feel less safe around police” and “that comes from lived experience.” He also said in a recent interview meant to clarify his remarks that Evergreen students “other” campus police and campus police “other” students, before quickly qualifying that that “can” happen, but doesn’t necessarily.
Knutson responded that Carmichael “is aware of the institutional problems with the police, but unwilling to incorporate this awareness into his decision making.”
Why Did Bridges Purchase Rifles? We May Never Know.
In the aftermath of having to confront his candid remarks publicly, John Carmichael has now begun to actively attempt to answer questions surrounding police services, including on personal rifles, and police hiring and training. But it still does not get us any closer to understanding why these decisions are being made. It is clear that only one person can speak to that.
Bridges made the decision, and only Bridges knows why he made it. If his past reticence to speak on this issue is any indication, we may never know specifically what was going on in his head. Presumably it was some combination of deference to the state legislature, changes in active shooter policy, and the residual fear from the tumult of Spring 2017, but unless he chooses to speak up we can not know for sure.
What we do know for sure is it was not Bridges’ idea to begin with. Police Services first formally requested rifles in 2009 before being rebuffed by the administration and wider campus community, and has been pushing consistently ever since.
Police at Evergreen have been slowly accumulating more arms since arriving on campus in the mid 90’s. Starting with handguns restricted to day use and secured in vehicles, then on the officers person, and then 24-7 use on the officers person.
Today, Police Services has AR-15 rifles, and their Standard Operating Procedures allow them to carry any amount of additional concealed arms on their person. What comes next? We know crowd control equipment is likely on its way if it’s not here already. Only the future will tell, although it may only tell after the fact, and might not have many details to offer.
