Shooting, protests burn through HPD overtime dollars

HERMISTON — A shooting on Friday, Aug. 21, followed by lengthy protests on Friday and Saturday nights burned through the equivalent of a month and a half worth of overtime budget for the Hermiston Police Department in one weekend, according to Chief Jason Edmiston.

That doesn’t count the extra hours put in by the department’s leadership paid on a salaried basis, he said.

A planned Black Lives Matter protest on the corner of Highway 395 and Highland Avenue drew about 100 counter-protesters on Aug. 21, and Edmiston said some members of both parties returned for round two on Aug. 22, again staying until roughly 11 p.m.

He said as the Aug. 21 protest stretched late into the evening, he eventually had to send some officers home because they had been working for 16 hours straight. That left fewer people to handle traffic infractions related to the protests.

“That’s a decision we had to make based on staffing,” he said. “People working 16 hours or more starts to get dangerous.”

He said HPD issued 11 citations on Aug. 21 and 13 on Aug. 22. They also arrested one 19-year-old male for reckless driving after he flipped a U-turn in the middle of Highway 395.

He said the Aug. 22 protest had a “different tone” than Aug. 21, including the absence of megaphones used Aug. 21. Police also cracked down on Aug. 22 on people rolling past protesters and leaving them in a cloud of thick, black exhaust fumes, he said.

— East Oregonian