WHERE ARE WE GOING, AND WHY?
VISION: “To improve the lives and careers of our members through steadfast advocacy, intentional leadership development, and proactive employee engagement.”
Building on Financial Stability
There is no denying that President Lopez has done exceptional work in strengthening the financial position of our Association and its members. But now that we have achieved financial stability, it is time to expand our focus. We must protect the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of our members—not just their bank accounts.
My vision for OSPOA is to build upon the forward progress of current leadership to ensure that our members successfully make it to retirement with their bodies, their minds, and their families intact.
Honoring Our Constitutional Mandate
While fundraising and securing competitive wages are critical, Article II of the OSPOA Constitution tasks Association leadership with a broader mandate. It explicitly charges us to:
Improve the daily lives and working conditions of our members.
Engage in public relations to promote respect and understanding for the unique challenges of law enforcement.
Foster a high standard of professionalism, camaraderie, and esprit de corps.
The Reality Facing Our Membership
A 2024 Gallup survey of Oregon State Police employees revealed a stark reality: only 34% of respondents actually enjoy coming to work. The remaining 66% either view their career strictly as a means to a paycheck or are actively looking for a way out.
Let me be absolutely clear: this data is not a reflection of our members' devotion to duty. On the contrary, our people choose to stay—despite grueling and unpleasant working conditions—out of a deep commitment to serving Oregonians. These statistics prove that no amount of money can replace organizational morale and a healthy workplace climate.
The Power of Fresh Perspectives
Serving as your 2025 Fish & Wildlife Division Bargaining Representative gave me a profound level of respect for the collective bargaining process. I am incredibly proud of what our team secured. However, I believe we missed a vital opportunity to improve the day-to-day lives of our members by not pushing harder for our non-monetary proposals.
This is not a criticism of our fantastic bargaining team, President Lopez, or former Vice President Hagen. Rather, it is a textbook example of why regular changes in leadership are healthy. Fresh perspectives prevent institutional stagnation. Wages and retirement are vital, but in a profession as taxing as law enforcement, we cannot afford to overlook the non-monetary conditions that dictate the health, safety, and longevity of our members and their families.
*Gallup, Inc. Employee Engagement Report | Oregon State Police Employee Engagement Survey 2024. Gallup, Inc., 2025.
PRIORITIES
TRANSPARENCY & COMMUNICATION
Trust is built through transparency and honest, straightforward communication.
OSPOA members from across the state have voiced a clear desire for our Association to be more transparent and to increase accessibility to State Executive Committee (SEC) meetings. Effective communication is vital to organizational success. Countless legendary leaders—including Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL commander, and General George S. Patton—credit their success to their ability to proactively and effectively communicate with those they lead.
As your President, my number one priority will be to establish an effective system of communication between Association leaders and the membership we serve:
No More Guesswork: Members should never have to wonder what the Association is doing for them or how their dues are being spent.
Accessibility: You should not have to drive all the way to Salem or physically attend an SEC meeting just to stay informed.
Modernized Outlets: OSPOA’s existing communication methods are outdated. Blog post notifications often end up in spam folders, and it is the Association’s duty to deliver information to you—not expect you to do the legwork to track it down.
The Solution: In 2026, there is no reason our Association should not have a secure mobile application capable of sending members immediate push notifications for new blog posts, surveys, and critical votes. Ultimately, Association leaders work for the membership. As your President, that distinction will never be lost on me.
QUALITY OF LIFE & EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
The physical, mental, and emotional stress our members experience in the line of duty is undeniable.
Regardless of your position within the agency, public safety professions suffer significant, adverse impacts as a result of community service. The empirical data is stark:
Life Expectancy: Law enforcement officers have a life expectancy that is 22 years shorter than the general population [INDEX].
Suicide Risk: Officers are 54% more likely to die by suicide.
Depression: Emergency Communications Operators are 57% more likely to suffer from symptoms of depression.
Cardiovascular Health: Research from Massachusetts General Hospital indicates that individuals who are sedentary (seated at a desk, console, or in a patrol car) for 10.6 hours or more per day face a 40% increased risk for heart failure and a 60% increased risk for cardiovascular-related death.
These concerns touch every facet of our membership—from troopers on the road to our telecommunicators, forensic scientists, fleet technicians, and evidence technicians.
Yet, financial well-being remains the exclusive focus year after year. While financial stability is integral, a healthy pension is only useful if you live long enough to enjoy it.
The CDC lists the average U.S. lifespan at 76 for men and 81 for women. Accounting for public safety statistics, the average life expectancy for male and female officers drops to approximately 54 and 59 years old, respectively. To qualify for full Police & Fire retirement under PERS, you must be at least 53 with 25 years of service, or age 55. Statistically, you may only have 1 to 6 years to enjoy your retirement benefits unless we make significant changes now.
If not for yourself, do it for your loved ones. We owe it to our families to improve daily working conditions.
The Solution: We must actively target non-monetary protections, including:
Reducing the total time members spend in a prolonged sedentary state.
Expanding access to high-quality nutritional resources and ancillary health services.
Securing free or reduced memberships at fitness facilities to boost morale, confidence, and overall life expectancy.
Rani, D., Foley, G., Lynn, C., Johnson, D., William, T., & Cassiano, M. S. (2025). The weight of words: a scoping review of depression and suicidal ideation among 911 call takers and dispatchers. Health & justice, 13(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-025-00376-y
Violanti, J. M., & Steege, A. (2021). Law enforcement worker suicide: an updated national assessment. Policing (Bradford, England), 44(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2019-0157
Violanti, J. M., Fekedulegn, D., Hartley, T. A., Andrew, M. E., Gu, J. K., & Burchfiel, C. M. (2013). Life expectancy in police officers: a comparison with the U.S. general population. International journal of emergency mental health, 15(4), 217–228.
Ajufo, Ezimamaka, et al. “Accelerometer-Measured Sedentary Behavior and Risk of Future Cardiovascular Disease.” Journal of the American College of Cardiology, vol. 85, no. 5, 15 Nov. 2024, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109724099200?via=ihub#abs0010, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2024.10.065.
CAREER PLANNING, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, & JOB SATISFACTION
I have devoted my entire adult life to public service—from joining the military at 18 to serving as an Oregon State Trooper.
During this time, I have experienced a wide range of organizational cultures and leadership styles. While I am incredibly proud to work for the Oregon State Police, there is always room for improvement. By making targeted changes to our organizational practices, we can significantly improve morale, engagement, and job satisfaction.
Career Planning & Leadership Development
One of the most glaring opportunities to improve our agency's leadership culture is to integrate meaningful career planning into the employee evaluation process. We must establish a formal leadership development program that supports our personnel throughout their careers—even after they promote out of the Association.
While the Association previously created an Employee Development Form for annual performance evaluations, its implementation is inconsistent. Many supervisors do not utilize it, and for those who do, only a fraction of the form touches on true career progression. This is a disservice to our members. Whether or not an individual aspires to climb the ranks, structured career planning is vital to personal and professional fulfillment.
The Power of Bidirectional Feedback
Organizational leadership directly drives employee engagement and team dynamics. Ineffective leadership practices erode morale, degrade performance, and hinder the core mission of the Oregon State Police. It is in the interest of our members, the agency, and the citizens we serve to ensure that those in positions of authority possess the tools and training to lead effectively.
True leadership development requires continuous self-reflection to identify blind spots and actively improve upon them. I do not believe organizational leaders are intentionally engaging in poor behavior. However, good intentions do not negate the adverse impacts of poor leadership on our members.
To prevent systemic leadership failures, we must fix our broken feedback loop. Under our current evaluation system, communication flows only one way: supervisors evaluate subordinates. There is no safe, constructive mechanism for employees to evaluate their supervisor's performance or provide upward feedback. This lack of bidirectional communication severely limits leadership development within our agency.
Growth, Not Retribution
I want to be clear: the goal of establishing bidirectional feedback is not to discredit or target anyone in a leadership role. Instead, it is about creating an opportunity for supervisors to engage in meaningful, authentic conversations with those they lead. The ultimate intent is to expand self-awareness and foster professional growth across all ranks.
Managers simply oversee tasks; true leaders inspire and develop their people. As your President, I will advocate for an agency culture that builds real leaders.
Employee Engagement & Job Satisfaction
“Employee engagement” is a phrase frequently heard around our offices, but it is far more than just a corporate buzzword. It is the metric that defines the health and future of our agency.
Shortly after taking office in 2023, Governor Tina Kotek established clear accountability expectations for all State of Oregon Executive Branch agencies. Her objective was to improve public service by identifying where agencies excel and where they require focused intervention. As part of this initiative, all executive branch agencies were directed to contract with Gallup, Inc. to administer an annual employee engagement and job satisfaction survey.
The Gallup framework evaluates how effectively organizational leaders meet the needs of their personnel. Structured similarly to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it categorizes employee needs into four distinct tiers:
Basic Needs - What do I get?
Individual - What do I give?
Teamwork - Do I Belong Here?
Growth - How can I Grow?
The Stark Reality of the OSP Survey Results
Unsurprisingly, OSP’s results reveal that employee engagement and job satisfaction are severely lacking across most of our workforce. The 2024 Gallup survey data paints a stark picture:
Low Participation: Only 60% of our total workforce responded to the survey.
Low Engagement: Of those who did participate, a mere 34% report being actively engaged.
The Bottom Line: Out of more than 1,300 employees at the Oregon State Police, only about 266 report being genuinely fulfilled coming to work.
These statistics should sound an alarm for everyone inside and outside our agency. Decades of workforce research prove that fulfilled employees perform at a higher level and take better care of their customers. In our profession, those customers are the citizens of Oregon.
Diagnosing the Problem
A career in public safety is uniquely taxing. Shift work, erratic schedules, occupational hazards, and repeated exposure to vicarious trauma are baseline realities for our members. While it is common across public safety to see personnel look for an exit between their 5th and 8th years of service, the Gallup data reveals a broader issue: widespread disengagement that extends far beyond that typical burnout window.
If the inherent stress of the job itself isn’t the primary driver of this dissatisfaction, what is? Thanks to the objective analytics from Gallup, we know the exact root causes. Our members are suffering from:
A systemic lack of meaningful employee recognition.
A measurable erosion of workplace camaraderie.
A culture where employee input is rarely sought, and when it is provided, it is routinely disregarded.
What do these three factors have in common? They are entirely dependent on the effectiveness of the leadership culture within the organization.
Leaders vs. Managers
How many times have you heard a colleague say that the Oregon State Police needs more leaders and fewer managers? Anyone who has served in the military or public safety knows the profound difference between the two: you manage things, but you lead people.
True leadership is not defined by a rank or a title. We all know senior troopers, telecommunicators, and tenured staff who carry far more respect and influence among their peers than the formal chain of command.
With few exceptions, nearly every manager in our agency began their career as an OSPOA member. By embedding strong, collaborative leadership principles at the foundation of our members' careers, we can organically rebuild morale, restore pride, and maximize organizational performance.
