Clackamas County Administrator Donald Krupp ordered county weighmasters to permanently stop pulling over commercial vehicles Monday, five months after a truck driver fatally shot Grady Waxenfelter during a traffic stop.
An evaluation launched after Waxenfelter's death found that weighmasters are unprepared for the risks presented by stops.
Clackamas County weighmasters stop drivers to counsel them on trucking rules and regulations but don't write tickets or make arrests. Yet, Wes Curtis and Tim Huegel of Commercial Truck Consulting in Grants Pass determined that a black uniform shirt that looks like a police officer's and unmarked weightmaster vehicles that look like police cars lead drivers to think that they might be getting pulled over by cops.
That's what U.S. Marshals think happened in Waxenfelter's case.
A truck driver for O'Malley Bros. Trucking shot Waxenfelter, an assistant weighmaster for 10 years, on Feb. 6, as he approached the driver.
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Dirck White, the prime suspect in Waxenfelter's killing, fled from the scene and remains at large. White has an extensive criminal record in the Seattle-Tacoma area, including convictions for assault, drugs and weapons violations, was wanted for questioning in a Pierce County, Wash., case involving sex with a child and is on a warrant for a firearms violation.
The consultants reported that Clackamas County offers no safety training for weighmasters -- nor virtually any formal training -- and no safety equipment. Each weighmaster car is equipped with a dispatch radio, but weighmasters are not required to use them, Curtis and Huegel found.
"I take these findings very seriously and have ordered a permanent suspension of enforcement stops involving weighmaster personnel while the County reconsiders the future operational status of the program," Krupp said, and apologized to Waxenfelter's family for any pain the report might cause.
Weighmasters will continue to process permits and do educational outreach.
Concerns for safety
Six counties in Oregon have weighmaster programs that are not under the Sheriff's Office. Curtis and Huegel compared the Clackamas program with those in Lane and Jackson counties, which are similar in size.
Current and former Clackamas County employees who work in the weighmaster department reported several concerns about their jobs to the consultants, including that their uniforms looking similar to those of armed officers, a lack of radio communication, unmarked cars, not having safety tools and a discomfort pulling trucks over.
Jackson and Lane counties employees reported no fears or apprehensions.
Curtis and Huegel wrote that the Clackamas employees have reason to be worried.
"During a traffic stop by a county weighmaster, with the current vehicle configuration and assigned uniform worn by them, it can be assumed that the weighmaster is perceived as an authorized peace officer by the commercial vehicle operator as well as the general motoring public," the report states.
They said that perception means the county should be training weighmasters on how to use pepper spray, how to conduct themselves at traffic stops, how to write tickets and make arrests and other duties authorized under Oregon law.
They identified several problem areas:
Conception of program's goals
Kevin Peterson, head weighmaster, essentially built the program in 1995, though it existed in some form before that. He never created a training manual, nor did the county design ongoing education for weighmaster employees.
New employees follow around senior weighmasters as their training.
"This form of training only perpetuates opinions and attitudes of tenured employees, regardless if it meets current County Weighmaster Program mission statement goals, objectives, and philosophies," the report states. "In our opinion, the Mission Statement for the County Weighmaster Program is lacking any clear, defined goal or objective for a public safety program of this importance."
Clackamas County weighmasters also never give out citations, nor make arrests. Other counties write 100 to nearly 500 citations in a year. Curtis and Huegel point out that Clackamas County budgets more than double what comparable counties do for the weighmaster program, because those counties create revenue through tickets.
Aside from funding, they said it's "unreasonable" that weighmasters don't learn to use force, because Oregon law allows them to make arrests.
At the same time, Peterson advocates for Clackamas County weighmasters to carry guns.
Other counties who do make arrests do not carry guns.
"At this point in time there are the means (tools) for Clackamas County Weighmasters to force the motor carriers into compliance, but because of the philosophy of the current program supervisor, weighmasters in Clackamas County are prohibited from utilizing those tools," Curtis and Huegel wrote.
Appearance of law enforcement
County weighmasters drive either a Chevrolet Tahoe, which is an SUV, or one of two Chevrolet 1500 pick-up trucks. None of those vehicles are marked with a county logo or identified as weighmaster cars.
The county chose not to identify the cars so weighmasters could "scout" areas that might need more enforcement. However, they do either have red and blue or red-only lights, making the cars look like emergency or law-enforcement vehicles.
Most of the time, county weighmasters pull over commercial vehicles on the road when they see something amiss, rather than at weigh stations.
Those factors make a dangerous situation for unarmed, untrained county employees who are better versed in how much a truck can weigh than how to diffuse an aggressive driver.
Law enforcement ability
Several people the consultants interviewed said that Peterson kept a shotgun in his truck until early 2014, when he was ordered to remove it. County policy prohibits employees from carrying firearms, but Peterson said he never asked his staff if they do.
This is one of the conflicts the report reveals between how much power weighmasters want to exert, and how much they are allowed.
Curtis and Huegel insisted that Clackamas County officials either limit the power of weighmasters, and thus make them look less like cops, or turn them into "duly commissioned special deputies," which comes with extensive training and a close relationships with the sheriff's office.
-- Molly Harbarger