A legal loophole allows ex-cops with lifetime bans from law enforcement to search, cite and arrest people on and around university campuses

A legal loophole allows former law enforcement officers with a lifetime ban from Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, or DPSST, to work as campus officers with many of the same legal rights and responsibilities as police, a Street Roots investigation found.

An indirect result of a 2015 law changing university governance structure, the loophole exempts special campus security officers — public security officers unique to Oregon’s public universities — from DPSST’s vetting, training and licensing processes required for other security officers. The law also exempts them from DPSST’s oversight, despite having law enforcement authority, including making probable cause arrests without a warrant and enjoying the “accompanying immunities” of police officers.

The loophole enabled multiple former law enforcement officers who were fired for misconduct to patrol universities, a Street Roots investigation found. In some cases, the loophole combines with local laws and interagency agreements to allow the same fired former law enforcement officers to conduct law enforcement duties off campus.

Lawmakers, students and legal experts alike expressed concern and confusion over why such a loophole exists.

State Sen. Michael Dembrow (D-Portland), who chairs the Senate Interim Committee On Education, said the Oregon Legislature should examine the law.

“I would expect the standards for special campus security officers to be higher than those for ordinary security officers,” Dembrow said. “If that’s not the case, then yes, that should be looked at by the Legislature.”

Rather than enacting higher standards for special campus security officers, the law exempts them from all DPSST standards and oversight. “Ordinary” security officers, who typically lack law enforcement authority, must be in good standing with DPSST. The law allows campus police departments to hire candidates after only a criminal background check and psychological evaluation.

“The major issue is that they don’t have a statewide minimum bar they have to meet before they can be employed … There is no centralized accountability system for making sure any standard is met.”
— Amanda Lamb, Oregon Justice Resource Center law enforcement resource counsel

“Untrained and non-certified persons or businesses, or persons not of good moral character are a threat to the public safety and welfare,” according to a DPSST brochure about security officers.

DPSST declined to comment on whether special campus security officers, who are exempt from its vetting, training and licensing processes, threaten student safety.

“I don’t know why the state would have this carve out for (special) campus security officers,” Amanda Lamb, Oregon Justice Resource Center law enforcement resource counsel, said. “They’re performing law enforcement duties in many cases, and they’re certainly performing private security duties.

“The major issue is that they don’t have a statewide minimum bar they have to meet before they can be employed … There is no centralized accountability system for making sure any standard is met.”

Under state law, DPSST sets a higher bar for law enforcement officers like police, corrections and liquor license officers than security officers, like regular campus security officers directly employed by the institution or via a private contractor.

For example, a law enforcement agency like the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, or OLCC, will fire a public safety officer, and DPSST will permanently ban them from future public safety work if it finds they engaged in a variety of actions, including abuse, sexual misconduct, hate crimes or dishonesty. The same actions would only result in a four-year ban for a security officer regulated by DPSST and prevent an aspiring security officer from obtaining a security license for four years.

However, special campus safety officers don’t fall into either category and are exempt from any centralized state oversight like DPSST or another official licensing body despite being public employees directly hired by a university law enforcement agency to carry out law enforcement duties.

The lack of oversight means DPSST could enact a lifetime ban on a fired former law enforcement officer one day, and a university could hire them the next day as a special campus security officer with arrest and citation authority. While the Legislature recently required universities to conduct a criminal background check and psychological evaluation for special campus security officer candidates, the law doesn’t require universities to examine or consider DPSST records.

“I do believe that those DPSST records should always be considered closely and carefully when hiring is done,” Dembrow said.

A Street Roots review of DPSST records suggests universities may not always consider these records.

For example, OLCC fired compliance officer Matthew Roberts in 2016 for violating its use of force and dishonesty standards after he allegedly attacked someone he thought was a minor in possession of alcohol and then was dishonest about his behavior to his superiors, according to a DPSST arbitration document. DPSST permanently banned Roberts from working as a public safety officer due to his dishonesty.

Southern Oregon University later hired Roberts as a special campus security officer in 2018, according to Roberts’ LinkedIn. SOU’s campus security roster shows the university currently employs him in this capacity.

“Southern Oregon University is an employer of choice in southern Oregon,” Joe Mosley, SOU communications director, said. “We follow all federal, state and local laws regarding employment, including those pertaining to employee confidentiality. We have thorough pre-employment screening processes, along with rigorous training and disciplinary processes and procedures, as appropriate.SOU does not generally comment on individual employees’ hiring, training or disciplinary matters, in accordance with confidentiality laws, rules, contracts, policies and procedures."

SOU isn’t the only university employing special campus security officers with a lifetime DPSST ban. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office fired corrections officer Catherine Vu, then Catherine Melgard-Stevens, in 2016 for violating a number of policies, including encouraging someone to falsify information to a fellow law enforcement officer, according to a dismissal letter from the sheriff’s office. DPSST permanently banned Vu from working as a public safety officer due to her alleged dishonesty.

Oregon State University records show the university hired Vu to work as a special campus security officer in 2019. OSU still employs her in this capacity, according to the university’s records.

“The university doesn’t have any comment beyond what is in the records (Street Roots) shared,” Sean Nealon, OSU news and research communications director, said.

Additional undiscovered cases of special campus security officers fired from prior law enforcement roles and banned by DPSST may exist because names in DPSST’s databases may not match university rosters, which do not always list legal names. For example, Roberts is listed as Matthew Roberts in DPSST records and Matt Roberts in SOU records. Vu is listed as Catherine Melgard-Stevens in DPSST records and as Cathy Vu in OSU records.

For some students, the loophole presents a serious safety concern. Arthur, a junior at SOU active in LGBTQIA2S+ organizing on campus who requested to use only his first name out of fear of retaliation, said it’s concerning to know banned former law enforcement officers like Roberts patrol the campus.

“I don’t really think there is anything at SOU that makes me feel 100% safe, especially with the knowledge of who campus security is and is led by,” Arthur said.

In some instances, local laws combine with the state loophole to allow special campus security officers to carry out law enforcement activities off campus.

In Roberts’ case, an Ashland Municipal Code chapter allows special campus security officers to enforce city code, meaning he can also detain, arrest, cite and administer search warrants for people throughout the city.

Vu and other OSU special campus security officers can patrol any OSU-owned property, including off-campus sites, and “may provide supportive assistance to local law enforcement agencies,” according to university materials.

‘Safe, supportive and beautiful place’

A warm June night at Southern Oregon’s Jackson County Fairgrounds promised a doubleheader: the kickoff of the 2016 Wild Rogue Pro Rodeo followed by rising country-rock star Chase Bryant. Attendees filed in, ready to watch and, of course, drink alcohol under the watchful eye of Oregon’s state liquor regulator.

A commotion broke out during Bryant’s set. A middle-aged man chased a young man through the crowd, eventually throwing him to the ground and putting him in a headlock, according to witnesses. People gathered around, pressuring the assailant to stop.

According to recently obtained legal documents, the assailant was then-OLCC law enforcement officer Roberts, who alleged he saw an underage attendee carrying a drink. Roberts claimed he did not pursue or attack the suspect in his official report about the incident, and he was dishonest about his actions during conversations with his boss, the OLCC human resources director and a sheriff’s deputy, according to the dismissal arbitration letter.

OLCC fired Roberts for dishonesty and excessive force in September 2016. DPSST upheld OLCC’s decision to fire Roberts and issued him a lifetime ban from working as a public safety officer in May 2018.

SOU hired Roberts as a special campus security officer in March 2018.

At SOU, which advertises itself as a “safe, supportive and beautiful place to pursue your academic goals,” Roberts’ special campus security officer job comes with many of the same responsibilities he had as a law enforcement officer.

Arthur said SOU’s decision to hire Roberts “sacrifice(s) not only students' sense of safety but potential actual safety” and “further fosters this feeling of disconnect between student and campus.”

“This is horrific,” Arthur said.

Roberts is also a former Medford City Council candidate who ran largely on an anti-homeless platform after his Facebook-centric “Greenway Recovery Project” group successfully pressured the city to pass an ordinance criminalizing homelessness.

Risking a repeat incident

On an overcast day in early May 2023, the Saltshakers, a constellation of anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQIA2S+ groups, came to protest at SOU’s campus. Douglas County Sheriff’s Office had recently fired Mason Goodnight, one of the group’s leaders, from his position as a corrections deputy for refusing to protect transgender inmates in accordance with a federal statute.

“There is no such thing as gay marriage,” Goodnight said in an interview after he was fired. “There is no such thing as transgenderism.”

Another Saltshakers leader, Jon Peterman, regularly posts to Roberts’ Greenway Recovery Project group’s Facebook page. At times, Roberts has engaged Peterman in conversations on the page.

Arthur and other students organized a counterprotest to drown out the Saltshakers. Special campus security officers sought to keep the peace by telling the students to leave.

Then, a commotion broke out. Arthur remembers seeing a student running away from the crowd, with Roberts and other special campus security officers in pursuit.

While Roberts didn’t appear to catch the student, Arthur connected Roberts’ behavior that day to his alleged behavior at the Jackson County Fair in 2016, saying Roberts should have been disqualified from any job where he could have done the same thing to another person.

Roberts’ off-campus behavior is controversial since he started working at SOU. By leveraging his image as a security professional, he organized his successful campaign to further criminalize homelessness in Medford in the wake of the 2020 Almeda Fire. A review of Roberts’ timesheets and his activity on the Greenway Recovery Project Facebook page — his mechanism for orchestrating the campaign — shows he frequently posted on the page during work hours, up to 11 times in one shift.

This May, the Saltshakers returned to campus. This time, Arthur and other students organized an escort system to help their peers reach their destination with as little harassment from protesters as possible. SOU’s special campus security officers watched while the Saltshakers verbally harassed students, according to Arthur.

Roberts did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publishing.

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