NEWS RELEASE FROM LANE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE AND EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT
Lane County and Eugene Crisis Negotiations Team Takes Honors
Last week members of Eugene Police and Lane County Sheriff’s Office Crisis Negotiations Teams (CNT) attended the 3rd Annual CNT Rodeo/Competition in Portland, where they took second place, missing first place by a slim margin to Portland Police during a competition between area negotiations teams. Especially impressive was the fact the LCSO/EPD team has very limited experience working together in a negotiations environment. Additionally the low number of actual call outs compared to other teams from more populated areas makes their accomplishment even more impressive.
A partial sponsorship was at stake for the winner of the competition to attend the 25th Annual CNT Competition in Texas.
Eight teams competed from Portland, Southern Washington, Washington County (a multi-agency team), Oregon State Police, Department of Corrections, Salem and a joint team from Lane County Sheriff’s Office and Eugene Police. Salem entered two teams into the competition.
All of the teams were tasked with negotiating the same scenario with the role players from a Portland theater group. They were thoroughly briefed so they were consistent in their responses with all teams. Two judges were assigned to each team. The entire scenario was approximately five-hours long and extremely taxing.
The six members of the LCSO/EPD team that competed are:
Officer Michelle Jones,
Officer Aaron Dressler
Deputy Tim Ware
Deputy Paul Vitus
Deputy Chuck Hardy
Deputy Bryan Holiman