Press To Patrol

Eugene police officer Joe Kidd uses his ability to engage with others to promote justice and safety in the community.

By Isaac Michaels

On the brisk Tuesday afternoon of November 26, 2019, Eugene police officer Joe Kidd responded to a complaint on West 6th Alley. A woman was running the streets, threatening to light things on fire. Kidd quickly began searching the nearby area, finding her just north at the Eugene bus stop of 6th and Monroe.

Kidd approached the woman, asking what was wrong. She sat down and started explaining how hard her life had been lately. Her speech was fast and slurred. Kidd soon discovered she was schizophrenic and had been off of her medication. He called Cahoots (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), an organization that provides free intervention for non-criminal crises, and waited.

She refused treatment from Cahoots, forcing Kidd to arrest her for probable cause. He attempted to take her to the hospital for a psychological evaluation, however, she refused to get in the squad car. Kidd waited in the rain, in 37-degree weather, for an ambulance so that the woman could be sedated and taken to the hospital. When paramedics finally arrived, it took two officers and an EMT to keep her still, while a second EMT administered Ketamine. Soaking wet and with only one shoe, she was then put on a gurney for transport to the University District Hospital.

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Kidd cares deeply about the people in the community and ensures their safety as a police officer. However, he was not always a cop. Before jumping fences to track down criminals he had a different job, a job that he feels contributes greatly to his success as a police officer. Kidd was a journalist.

While serving in the Marines, Kidd always followed the news and read the newspaper, and thought, “hey, I could do that.” He loved the process of inquiry, and after four years in the Marines, he went to the University of Oregon to follow his passion for the press.

“I loved being a journalist,” says Kidd. One of his craziest stories started with a midnight fax from Yoncalla, Oregon, telling him to contact the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. They explained the situation and Kidd quickly jumped in his car and made the 45-minute drive south to find a crime scene with two dead bodies and an interesting story of how they got there. Eyewitnesses in the neighborhood say two men, who live across the street from each other, had been bickering and fighting for the past few weeks. Eventually, one neighbor had enough, grabbing his shotgun, and chasing the other. Then, the other grabbed his own shotgun, and the two neighbors proceeded to chase each other around their two houses, eventually killing each other. Kidd was in shock when he heard this, but he did his reporting and went back up to Eugene. Arriving home sometime around 2:00 a.m., he quickly wrote the story to publish in the morning paper.

Stories like this did not come often, and after ten years of typing away at his desk, Kidd couldn’t sit still anymore. He needed a job out of the office, and felt his background as a journalist would certainly prepare him for becoming a police officer. “Being a reporter helps me as a cop because in both jobs you want to get information from people, even if it isn’t in their best interest,” he says.

Since joining the police force, he has never felt bored, constantly taking on surprising calls. Kidd’s duties in the community vary from day to day. Whether it be in the form of assisting those involved in car crashes exchange information, or reponding to a bank robbery, Kidd helps settle many different conflicts. “Cops are problem solvers,” he says.

Police officers have to be a jack of all trades, with the ability to adapt to different situations and still find a solution. “Cops have to have a large toolbox,” says Kidd. And they have to know how to use all of their tools.

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Kidd also enjoys helping others in the community through community service efforts. For the past couple of years, he has partnered with several local businesses to build Thanksgiving care packages—a warm meal, a blanket, and various other items—for struggling veterans. They handed out 33 care packages this year.

Kidd recently took on a new role in the police department; he was the first Eugene officer to receive a drug dog. He switched over to the street crimes unit and received Logan, his K-9, in February.

Before applying for this position on the K-9 unit, Kidd did extensive research on drug dogs and what it would be like having a partner on four paws. He rode along with eight officers who had drug dogs, attended a weekly training session for other drug dogs in the area, and spent his free time studying laws about drug dogs, such as search and seizure laws. When he went in for the interview process, he felt very prepared, however, none of his knowledge of laws on drug dogs would help him.

The first portion of the interview was in front of a committee, just asking him a few questions. Next, Kidd had to guide a dog, who he had just met, through a mock scenario. The dog had to jump through a window, find a small bag of drugs, and return to Kidd to be carried up a ladder. Finally, Kidd had to guide the dog through an obstacle course. The whole process took about four hours. Afterwards, he remembers thinking, “I bombed that!”

But on November 26, the same day he helped the schizophrenic woman, Kidd was pleased to hear that he had been selected for the position, making all the work worth it.

Officer Kidd genuinely loves working for and with the public, finding the best possible solutions, and taking on new challenges.