News

A Key Incident

Twice in the past year, keys belonging to DPS have been lost and recovered. One set of these keys open a number of doors around the UO residence halls - and the locks have yet to be changed.

By Ben Nahorney

Security is a feature that dorm residents expect during their time living in the residence halls. However, a little-known incident from the winter of last year may have compromised the safety of the residence halls.

In the fall of 1999, Department of Public Safety Officer Sean Strahon, in violation of DPS policy, took home with him a set of DPS-issued keys at the end of his shift. Such key sets open pathway locks, locks on residence hall entry doors, as well as master keys that gain access to all dorm rooms on campus.

That night, his car was broken into and the keys were taken. Strahon reported the keys stolen and a re-keying order was sent to the Housing Department and charged to DPS.

A number of weeks later, the keys were found when the Eugene Police Department discovered them in the possession of a suspect in another unrelated theft case. The keys were subsequently returned to the University.

According to Emily Smee, the locksmith for the Office of University Housing, the pathway locks to Bean, Carson, Earl, Riley and Watson re-keyed during the time the keys were missing. When the keys were found, the re-keying process was stopped.

Currently, the pathway locks to Hamilton and the University Inn remained unchanged, as do the doors to all dorm rooms on campus.

Would it have been possible for a person to make copies of the keys, if they had access to the proper equipment? "If it's not a high security key, there's not a 100 percent guarantee that it can't be duplicated," said Stephen Joers of Action Locksmithing, a Eugene based locksmith company. He explained that a high security key is generally issued to and patented by a particular manufacturer. Only this manufacturer has the resources to duplicate the key. University Housing maintains its own lock shop, but does not use such high security keys.

Furthermore, this is not the only time that keys have been either lost or misplaced.

Shortly after the above incident, Kim Maynard, who was an officer in the department at the time, was cleaning out a patrol car and discovered a newly issued set of keys to the dorms, with the officer's name on the key ring, under a car seat.

"I struggled with what to do with them," Maynard said. Since the keys had not been reported as missing, Maynard said he decided to hold on to them to see if the officer would report them. A number of days passed and the keys were not reported missing.

"I took and dropped the keys in the director's mailbox, where they sat for a week or two, and then they finally disappeared." When asked about the incident, DPS Director Thomas Fitzpatrick said that he does not recall finding the set of keys in his box.

Regardless of what happened to the keys after this second incident, DPS officers are no longer given key sets that give them full access to the dorms. Officers must now check out entry door keys from the DPS office. Before entering a residence hall, officers must open a lock-box in front of each dorm and use the keys in that box to gain entry to individual dorm rooms in that particular hall.

Any copies of the first set of keys that were lost would still allow access to the pathway locks in Hamilton and the University Inn, as well as all individual dorm rooms.

Ben Nahorney, a senior majoring in Journalism, is Managing Editor for the Oregon Commentator