The employees at the Eugene Police Department like to have fun with the incentives they give people for donating to nonprofit charities. One incentive has been allowing people on the police force to grow facial hair that is out of uniform code. However, the incentive that stuck was “bring your pet to work” day.
Rather than try to grow a beard, the folks of the records department and other various corners of EPD are surrounded by dog beds and chew toys, making the atmosphere more cheery than usual.
Every year in September, United Way of Lane County has its Days of Caring in which the nonprofit incentivises volunteers across the county to participate with or donate to local agencies.
When EPD employees donate to a list of charitable programs provided by United Way, their donation is logged and they are allowed special privileges. This donation is usually taken out of the EPD employee’s payroll says Chief Chris Skinner.
United Way is a nonprofit dedicated to aiding children in their health and education. Its partners include the Early Childhood Hub of Lane County, the Black Early Learning program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Kids in Transition to School and Preschool Promise.
“We’ve got really important and serious business to do here,” Skinner says of the work of the Eugene Police, “and there’s a lot of people counting on us across this community to help them feel secure and safe; and if we can’t find a way to have a little bit of joy in the workplace then we’re not meeting needs externally.”
Skinner has been in the police force for 34 years and says he recognizes that mental and emotional health is important in the industry.
“I can remember things in my career like they were yesterday. You know, I can remember the first time I had to turn over a child car seat that had been ejected from a car,” Skinner says. “When I think about wellness I think about trauma.”
The joy that comes with being greeted by a four-legged furry friend is one of the things EPD does to maintain stress levels in its employees. Other creative methods of reducing EPD employee stress include yoga classes and massages.
F.E.T.C.H. (Friends Eager To Come Help), a local volunteer therapy dog group, has been providing stress relieving trips to assisted living and memory care facilities, Sacred Heart Medical Center RiverBend, the University of Oregon, Lane Community College, high schools, mental health facilities, a pediatric dentist, Eugene Airport and more for over 20 years.
Betty Flinn, who has been working for F.E.T.C.H. since 2004, says dog therapy works because it provides people with a non-judgemental outlet for their stress and troubles.
Flinn has borne witness to dogs de-stressing people in the workplace. “We go to RiverBend hospital and we go for the patients, but the poor doctors and nurses, we de-stress them a lot more when they come out of surgery and pet the dogs,” Flinn says.
Laura Venne, a records employee who has been working for EPD for 20 years, donates to United Way every year so that she can bring her dog Chloe to work.
Chole is a small mutt who was labeled on Craigslist as a labradoodle needing a home. Chloe is actually a quarter poodle, a quarter Dachshund, a quarter Cocker Spaniel and a quarter Maltese, according to her DNA; and isn’t loved by Venne any less.
To Venne, Chloe makes her hour-long commute to work worth it, and is part of why she’s been working for EPD for so long.
“Part of the incentive that keeps me making the trip is that she gets to come with,” Venne says. “I get to come to work in jeans and bring my dog, which is really motivating,”
Some EPD employees whose work is not conducive to pets still interact with the dogs every day, and some of these employees are Chloe’s favorites — including a bailiff that brings her snacks and a custodian that keeps extra treats on them. And then there’s one of the investigative administrators that brings her pup so she and Chloe can play together.
Skinner has his own favorite employee dog, but wouldn’t disclose the dog’s name out of fairness to everyone else. (However, Eugene Weekly can confirm that it is a male dog).
Not only do the employees benefit from having dogs at their workplace, so does the public that comes into the police department, Venne says.
“It breaks the tension a lot, citizens react differently when you approach the counter with Chloe,” she says. Venne says she recognizes that when most citizens come into EPD they are most likely dealing with something difficult, and she feels the pets throughout the police department help lighten the mood.
United Way’s 2024 Days of Caring are Sept. 26 through 28. Find F.E.T.C.H. Therapy Dogs at FetchTherapyDogs.org.