Merkley, Kroger and Schrader address public safety issues

OREGON CITY -- Oregon House Speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland), Oregon Attorney General candidate John Kroger, and State Sen. and U.S. Rep. candidate Kurt Schrader (D-Canby) addressed residents' public safety concerns on Monday when they made a joint town hall appearance to speak about their plans to combat Internet predators and the methamphetamine epidemic both on the local and on the federal level.

About 30 Oregon City residents came to the Carpenters Local building to hear how the three Democratic candidates planned to continue to advocate for public safety measures if elected to the positions they're running for.

“We need a strong team in Washington, D.C.,” Merkley said. “And we need a lot of communication between the state and federal government.”

The trio talked of their plans to increase the number of public safety officers in Oregon. Schrader was very upbeat about finding the money to pay for 50,000 more police officers nationwide, which will include 500 more cops for the Beaver State. Schrader agreed with Merkley, saying that more officers were necessary to cut down on crime in Oregon, a policy that Merkley and his rival, incumbent U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) have disagreed on.

“This is an important issue,” Schrader said. “No one else is talking about this, It doesn’t seem to be received by our elected officials. Jeff is committed to helping us revitalize these efforts.”

While the three touted their plans for more police officers and their policies for catching Internet predators, the conversation centered on Oregon’s meth epidemic. Merkley and Schrader talked of how they successfully passed legislation to shut down local meth labs, but that Oregon now faced a new problem; a new supply of the drug coming up from Mexico. For Schrader, this problem has hit very close to home.

“I have a good friend of mine down in Canby, and he is basically raising his grandchildren because his daughter has a problem with meth,” Schrader said. “This community is under siege, and I like to think Jeff and I have walked our talk. We expanded the state police, and our goal is to shut down that meth traffic.”

But to do that, Kroger said, you have to diminish the demand. And that involves treating drug addicts, not sentencing them. So the three talked about their plan to start treating a certain percentage of arrested meth addicts, rather than incarcerating all of them. Kroger also told residents that while it would be expensive and difficult to stop the flow of meth over the Mexican border, their plan to offer better treatment options was Oregon’s best shot at reducing the impact meth had on their community.

“I wish I could tell you we just have to patrol the borders better,” Kroger said. “But we put a lot of resources into the borders, and we stop less than 10 percent of the traffickers. The answer is if you want to put your money in a place where it will do the most good, you put it in treatment.”

The group then took several questions addressing residents’ concerns on public safety issues ranging from drug smuggling to lottery and Internet gambling. At the end, Oregon City Mayor Alice Norris said she was convinced that the candidates would be able to deliver real changes for Oregon City.

“I have such confidence,” she said after the meeting. “With their records and their forward thinking, they will be able to make a difference to the residents of Oregon City.”