Law Enforcement

The Attorney General of Oregon is a key partner and leader in Oregon law enforcement. Hardy Myers has worked hard to make the largest contribution he can in all his office’s work for public order and safety, and support of victims of crime.

Head of the Department of Justice

The most important work of the Attorney General in law enforcement rests on his or her position as head of the Department of Justice.

Helping District Attorneys Investigate and Prosecute Crime

Hardy Myers assists prosecutors with investigation and prosecution of crime when they request the help of the Department’s Criminal Justice Division. The District Attorney Assistance Section has helped prosecute many complex and high profile cases, including Christian Longo, who murdered his wife and children on the Oregon coast. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk wrote, "I have called upon [Hardy Myers] frequently to assist my office in prosecuting crime, helping decide complex legal issues, and finding new avenues to compensate crime victims." (To read his whole letter, click here.) Hardy Myers has been endorsed by 31 District Attorneys across the state for his public safety work.

Fighting Organized Crime and Maintaining the State’s Criminal Intelligence Unit

The Department’s Organized Crime Section fights public corruption and maintains the Criminal Intelligence Unit, Oregon law enforcement’s center for criminal intelligence.

Defending Criminal Convictions

The Attorney General defends all criminal convictions when they are attacked on direct appeal or in other proceedings in state and federal courts. Year to year, the Department has succeeded in upholding convictions in a very high percentage of the cases decided.

Advising State Partners in Law Enforcement

The Attorney General, through the Department’s Criminal Justice, General Counsel, and Appellate Divisions, provides legal advice and representation to all state partners in law enforcement, including District Attorneys, Department of State Police, Department of Corrections, Oregon Youth Authority, Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision, and the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training.

Helping and Supporting Crime Victims

To learn about Hardy Myers’ work to support victims of crime through the Department’s Crime Victims Assistance Section and by special efforts like the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force and Restitution Reform Task Force, click here.

Special Leadership Work

In addition to his or her work as head of the Department of Justice, the Attorney General has many special leadership opportunities. Hardy Myers has seized these opportunities.

Homeland Security

• As a member of the Governor’s Security Council, Hardy Myers helped lead the effort to prepare Oregon government for the new terrorist threat. After 9-11, he oversaw a "gap analysis" of Oregon law to identify gaps in the state’s legal and security infrastructure. After that analysis, Hardy successfully proposed various law changes, including adoption of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact Act that provides for the seamless sharing of emergency resources among states that have adopted the Act.
  
  
• Long before the national 9-11 Commission formally recommended that the government do a better job coordinating law enforcement agencies, Hardy Myers built a system for unifying and facilitating cooperation between agencies. His office hosts the Joint Regional Information Exchange System as part of the Department’s work as the Oregon Terrorism Information Center. If a fertilizer truck full of bomb-making chemicals is stolen anywhere in Oregon, it will first be detected by a deputy sheriff or a local police officer, not a federal investigator. And in Oregon — thanks to the work of Hardy Myers — that report will quickly be shared across traditional government boundaries.

Helping Meet Special Law Enforcement Challenges

• Clandestine Laboratory Tracking. Hardy Myers created a statewide computerized system for law enforcement reporting of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories to streamline the paperwork involved in closing down meth labs. This has enabled officers to spend more time working cases and less time filling out paperwork, and has facilitated easier distribution of federal drug enforcement funds to Oregon agencies.
  
  
• High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). This is a multi-jurisdictional team housed at the Department since its inception (1999). Although technically focused on specified counties, the program in fact serves all of Oregon law enforcement. Oregon’s HIDTA has become a national model in part because it built on the Department’s preexisting Oregon State Criminal Intelligence Network (a sub-part of the Criminal Justice Division). That Criminal Intelligence Unit has served Oregon’s law enforcement officers for nearly two decades without the slightest hint of abuse of anyone’s civil liberties. The HIDTA is now indivisibly fused with the Attorney General’s Criminal Intelligence Unit. It is securely under civilian control and yet tailored to the exact needs of federal, state, and local law enforcement.
  
  
• Law Enforcement Officer Safety (Event "Deconfliction"). The Oregon State Criminal Intelligence Network went online in 2004 with a new and critically important service that helps keep law enforcement officers safe. Officers about to take an enforcement action at a given location can now—thanks to the Department and for the first time ever—enter the location and determine whether another law enforcement agency plans simultaneous action at the same or nearby location. So far this year, 396 major police enforcement actions have been screened by this system. Of those, 196 direct conflicts between Agency A and Agency B have been revealed by the system. The result: safer officers, better outcomes for investigations.
  
  
• Undercover Investigations. In a 2000 legal ethics law decision, the Oregon Supreme Court held that "faithful adherence to the wording of [ Oregon law] does not permit recognition of an exception for any lawyer to engage in dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, or false statements." Since all undercover law enforcement investigations, including those supervised by lawyers, involve elements of "deceit, misrepresentation, or false statements," the Court’s ruling brought effective drug enforcement, organized crime, and many other criminal investigations to a complete standstill in Oregon.

From the beginning, Hardy Myers worked to change legal ethics law as it applies to legitimate undercover investigations overseen by state and federal prosecutors. Hardy helped persuade the House of Delegates of the Oregon State Bar to recommend changes in the ethics rules to the Oregon Supreme Court; the Supreme Court rejected the first recommendation but indicated an alternative it could approve. The Oregonian editorialized, "This week, the state Supreme Court suggested an approach that could restore this power, which prosecutors once had, and which they now need more than ever, to lead undercover investigations. Restoration of this authority can’t come too soon." Hardy Myers again helped persuade the House of Delegates to recommend, and the Oregon Supreme Court to approve, the alternative legal ethics law change that restored the ability of law enforcement agencies to resume critically important undercover investigations with lawyer involvement.

• Restoration of Authority to Use "Body Wires." In 2000, the Oregon Supreme Court held that officers must have a court order to use a "body wire."

A body wire is a concealed tape recorder or concealed radio-connected microphone. Police use them in many different kinds of undercover investigations. By documenting what is said between an undercover officer and a suspect, such devices can protect suspects against overreaching by police as well as helping avoid false claims of entrapment or police misconduct.

Prior to this case, law enforcement officers believed that no order was required when the officer was investigating drug crimes. The Court’s decision was based on interpretation of Oregon statutes, not based on the constitutional protection of a suspect’s right to privacy. The ruling made it difficult—impossible in some circumstances—to use a body wire on an officer or informant to surreptitiously tape a criminal suspect. Hardy formed a workgroup of Department lawyers to create and advocate for a legislative solution. The Department’s lawyers worked on a bipartisan basis with the 2001 Legislative Assembly. The Assembly overwhelmingly passed Senate Bill 654, effectively curing the problem.

• Governor’s Public Safety System Review. Hardy was a member of the Steering Committee of Governor Kulongoski’s recently completed public safety system review and chaired its Adult Sentencing Committee.