|
OACP News
 OACP Members:
It is an absolute privilege and honor to represent you as the incoming 2020-2021 OACP President.
First, let me take a moment and thank our outgoing President, Chief Kris Allison for her service and commitment to the OACP membership. Kris has served our organization with pride and distinction. I know firsthand that Kris always had the best interest of our members and our profession at the forefront of her role on the Executive Committee. I look forward to Kris’ continued contributions to the Executive Committee while serving OACP as Past President through the coming year.
Congratulations to the rest of the Executive Committee as they move through the committee chairs. To Chief Matt Workman for his appointment as 1st Vice President and to Chief Chris Skinner for his appointment as 2nd Vice President. I will be relying on both Matt and Chris for their input and guidance throughout this coming year.
Vice President at Large, Chief Jeff Fossholm has announced his retirement effective June 1st. Many thanks to Jeff for his contributions and faithful years of service to our association in a variety of leadership roles. His experience and wisdom will certainly be missed on the Executive Committee and we hope he will stay engaged with OACP during retirement.
Our Past President, Chief Jeff Groth rotates off the Executive Committee and his departure will be sorely missed. Jeff has served our Executive Committee with poise and grace, always the consummate professional. His leadership and presence will be hard to replace. We look forward to Jeff’s continued participation in the Association.
I would like to welcome our most recent additions to the Executive Board – Chief Matt Scales joins us as Secretary/Treasurer and Chief John Teague comes back to the Executive Board as our Vice President at Large. I am looking forward to working with these two leaders, as I know they will add stock to our association in these roles.
Well, we are certainly in unprecedented times. The issues brought on by the COVID-19 virus are serious and significant. Many of our cities and police organizations are likely facing negative financial impacts that translate or will translate into more personnel shortages, deep budget cuts, along with policy changes. All of that is in addition to the personnel shortages we were dealing with before COVID-19 hit.
Our association has not been immune to the impacts of the COVID-19 virus. As has been announced, our annual conference was cancelled. As a result, OACP will realize some financial revenue losses. This news is sad and disappointing, not only from the financial standpoint but our annual conference is always such an opportunity for all of us to connect and network face to face. However, I am optimistic that we will work through these challenges with resolve, we will weather this storm and our association will recover even stronger.
Of course, over the next year, we will continue to bring high quality training to you through our seasonal conferences and seminars. How we do that and how it looks and feels may be different, but then again, we are living in different times.
A primary focus of OACP this coming year will be on our membership. Building and maintaining a strong membership is key to remaining resilient, while ensuring growth of our association to sustain future work as OACP addresses issues and challenges.
Rest assured that in the coming year, OACP will be at the forefront of working to help you and your organizations recover from this crisis. First, we must support each other in the recovery from impacts of this pandemic. Keeping OACP strong is essential to providing that critical support to you, our members.
Our committees drive our association. Across the board, the work of our committees sets the tone for literally everything we do as an association. Thank you to those members who participate on the committees. We usually recruit for committees members during our annual conference. Since the conference is canceled, we will be sending out a sign up notice in the very near future. Stay tuned so you can sign up for committee work.
Another OACP focus has to be on the retention and recruitment of personnel so we can fill critical positons in our police agencies. While some of us have realized loss of personnel from COVID related budget freezes and cuts, we must continue moving forward to fill existing vacancies with competent, professional personnel.
In February, a long legislative session will begin. OACP again will be at the forefront of statewide legislative action. Based on the last two sessions, I do not anticipate navigating the 2021 legislative session will be an easy journey. It is going to take all of us pulling together and contributing to this effort, working alongside our criminal justice partner organizations, to minimize negative impacts to the criminal justice community. Unification around issues of mutual interest gives us the strength to achieve our mission of promoting and enhancing the highest ethical and professional standards in law enforcement, at all levels throughout Oregon.
Finally, we must continue to support Kevin, Marie and their team as they accomplish the unthinkable and do amazing work in terms of lobbying and administrative support to our association.
On behalf of the Executive Committee and our Board of Directors, thanks to each of you who make up our membership. Please know that we are here to serve you. Feel free to reach out to any of us at any time.
Be safe,
Jim Ferraris
OACP President
|
Outgoing President, Chief Kris Allison, provides a Recap of her time as OACP President. 
Click here