Oregon State extends OSP contract through end of year

Oregon State University will continue to have state troopers on campus through the end of the year, the university's president announced, delaying the creation of a new campus police department.

Own police force-- state troopers will be on oregon state unvieristy campus til the end of the year.

Kezi 9 news reporter chris lueneburg shows us why the process needed more time... and what officials know about the new police force already.

Oregon state sophomore leah bates's experiences with police haven't been positive-- an incident with her mother raising red flags.

"she got jumped for being black.

My mom was trying to de-escelate the situation but she actually got arrested for aggrivated assault."

She hopes her on- campus experience will improve once state troopers are gone.

"with my personal experience with the police, i wouldn't feel safe with them around any longer than they need to be until things are much safer for us when police are retrained."

While change is ahead-- the concerns have been around for years.

"concerns over osp on campus flared when the arrest of a student on this street stirred questions of racial bias in october."

The video depicted genesis hanson being detained after she rode her bike on the wrong side of the road... shortly after, osp said it was parting ways with the university.

"in the wake of the incident that happened this fall there seemed to be a lot of community engagement at the student level about trying to get those changes made.

So i'm skeptical about why it's taking so long."

Osu's department of public safety was supposed to take charge this week-- but officials say they needed more time to get it right.

"the killing of george floyd by police elevated the requirements for oregon state and all communities to reevaluate public safety.

So we are taking a pause on how we proceed.

That means getting extensive public comment through july.

But officials already have some plans for the force-- up to 50 percent or more of the officers will be unarmed.

"working with people and achieving the needs of the community well beyond safety."

There will be extensive training with a focus on ehtics and de- escalation.

Recruitment policies will include a looking at past disciplinary complaints-- and all officers will wear body cameras.

Even with planned transparency-- students are watching closely.

"they were orignally here for our safety, and now it's something else.

It really needs to be brought back to what it was originally for."

Reporting in corvallis chris lueneburg kezi 9 news.

There is a protest planned for later tonight.

It will be led