Oregon

Oregon State Hospital suspends in-person visits after patient dies of suspected fentanyl overdose • Oregon Capital Chronicle

Published

2 years ago

May 25, 2024

Oregon State Hospital suspends in-person visits after patient dies of suspected fentanyl overdose • Oregon Capital Chronicle

A patient at Oregon State Hospital died of a suspected fentanyl overdose on Friday, and Oregon State Police are investigating the circumstances, police said.

A spokesperson for the police agency confirmed the investigation to the Capital Chronicle late Friday but had no other details. Separately, the Oregon State Hospital sent a memo to staff on Friday and announced it is temporarily halting in-person patient visits with friends and family. The state-run psychiatric hospital in Salem has more than 600 patients.

“Because of a significant incident related to passing of contraband from a visitor to a patient, we are pausing in-person visitation effective immediately,” the hospital’s interim superintendent, Sara Walker, wrote in a Friday email to staffers.

Larry Bingham, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees the hospital, declined to comment about the incident when asked about the overdose.

The case is the latest in a string of incidents that have temporarily put the state hospital in the crosshairs of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which inspects hospitals that receive federal funding. A federal report released earlier this month flagged problems that included blind spots in the security camera system, a failure to adequately monitor patients and the distribution of condoms to patients even though they aren’t allowed to have sex with each other. The hospital also has overhauled how it stores its emergency life-saving equipment after federal officials inspected the facility following a patient death shortly after the patient’s admission. Inspectors found that the critical equipment stored in a disorganized way.

Walker’s memo did not mention that the incident involved a suspected fentanyl overdose nor that police are investigating.

“This was a decision the executive team did not make lightly,” Walker’s message said. “We know how important in-person visits are to patients and those who love them, and we know we are making the decision on a Friday before a holiday weekend.”

Walker did not say when visits would resume. She said the pause will be “as short as we can” while the hospital reviews visitation policies and procedures to ensure in-person visits are safe for patients, families and staff.

Walker directed staff to notify patients and visitors with a prepared script that apologized for the suspension. Patients still have access to video visits.

The restrictions come after patients and family have enjoyed more freedom to have in-person visits after pandemic-era restrictions were fully lifted in 2023.

The easy availability of fentanyl in Oregon has fueled an overdose crisis in Oregon, with people consuming the powerful drug in public. That’s led to the Legislature recriminalizing possession of illegal drugs. A new law signed by Gov. Tina Kotek will lead to new programs throughout the state to encourage people to enter treatment and avoid court charges for drug possession.

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Oregon

Audit says Oregon state parks failed to complete safety inspections

Published

6 hours ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Audit says Oregon state parks failed to complete safety inspections

Staff at Oregon’s state parks failed to complete safety inspections of park buildings and kept inconsistent records of state property, according to an audit released April 1 by the Oregon Secretary of State.

The problems, auditors found, could risk visitor safety and taxpayer money due to lawsuits and fines if not addressed.

“Oregonians love their state parks and have been able to safely enjoy them for decades,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement. “The findings in this audit will help protect that important legacy and our public dollars.”

The audit was the latest hit in what’s been a rough stretch for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, which faces a multimillion revenue shortfall and has responded with a series of unpopular fee increases and program cuts.

In response to the audit, OPRD issued a statement saying agency officials agreed with the report’s findings “and have already begun implementing improvements, many of which were underway during the audit.”

Interim director Stefanie Coons added: “The safety of our visitors and the protection of Oregon’s state parks have always guided our decisions, and we remain committed to strengthening the systems that support that responsibility.”

The audit period covered June 2022 to June 2025.

OPRD doesn’t complete building safety inspections, audit finds

Auditors found that “OPRD doesn’t consistently complete or document required building inspections.”

“When inspections are missed or aren’t recorded, it could lead to injuries to the public and reduce confidence in the safety of Oregon’s parks,” the audit said. “These gaps could affect staff safety, limit OPRD’s ability to identify hazards early and respond properly and may result in regulatory fines.”

The areas inspected were located at overnight campgrounds that offer tent and RV camping and have restrooms.

OPRD manages about 50 campgrounds and 250 day use sites. Many of the agency’s 2,000 buildings are over 50 years old with some beyond their expected lifespans, making the quarterly inspections critical.

“Despite these requirements, we found inspections weren’t consistently performed and documented,” the audit said. “One of the parks we visited had no records of building inspections from 2022 to 2025.”

Oregon’s state parks have seen a skyrocketing number of visitors across the past decade and a half, culminating in record-setting visits in 2024.

OPRD managers told auditors that missed inspections or lack of documentation “were due to competing priorities, including prioritizing customer service — that is, being responsive to park visitors and emergent situations over ensuring records are kept accurately.”

In the past three years, OPRD received three citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, costing $10,000.

One citation was linked to a concessionaire-operated building where OPRD and the concessionaire failed to identify and address hazards due to a lack of inspection.

The others involved failing to check for lead paint hazards and using improperly trained forklift operators.

OPRD shows inadequate management of state property including phones, trailers

The agency is required to track and document all its capital assets — from phones to truck trailers. The audit found 38% of its assets were missing key information in state databases.

OPRD’s assets include up to $1 billion in equipment.

“Inaccurate or incomplete asset records increase the risk of theft, loss, unrecouped damages, and legal liability,” the audit said. “They can also create safety risks.”

The audit noted a backpack blower, utility trailers, an automated external defibrillator and iPhones that hadn’t been documented or had been incorrectly documented. That can mean it’s not covered by insurance.

“These types of gaps have already caused financial losses. After being destroyed by a fire, a $50,000 trash compactor had to be replaced using OPRD funds because it wasn’t listed in (state systems),” the audit said.

Audit suggestions for OPRD

Auditors issued recommendations to OPRD to address these problems, including:

Finalize and roll out policies and procedures requiring quarterly safety inspections of employee-occupied structures, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for execution and oversight, including documentation standards.
Update OPRD’s asset management guidance, including clear procedures for currently uncovered asset types such as infrastructure and transportation.
Provide recurring training to all relevant personnel on asset management policies — including tagging, record-keeping and disposal procedures — and reinforce expectations through performance evaluations or other accountability mechanisms to ensure compliance.
Continue efforts to replace the Oregon Parks and Recreation Information System with a new asset management system and ensure the new system has all required fields needed for accurate reporting.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at oregonoutdoors.bsky.social

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Oregon

Woman missing after running out of gas on highway, leaving car

Published

18 hours ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

Woman missing after running out of gas on highway, leaving car

Oregon State Police are asking for the public’s help in finding a woman who went missing after getting into a person’s vehicle when she ran out of gas on Highway 22 on March 28.

Maria Linda Jade Kilmer, 28, was driving from Lyons to Salem when her car ran out of fuel near milepost 15 just west of Stayton at 9 p.m. A passenger who was traveling with Kilmer told police she left with an unidentified motorist who stopped at the scene.

Police describe Kilmer as having dark hair, blue eyes and is approximately 5-feet-8-inches tall. She weighs 180 pounds. She frequents areas in the Willamette Valley from Salem to Portland, an OSP spokesperson said, and has a piercing in the middle of her lower lip.

Kilmer left her keys, purse, identification, phone and other belongings. She has not been seen since.

Police ask anyone with information to call 911 or Oregon State Police dispatch at *677.

Eder Campuzano is the local news editor for the Statesman Journal. He can can be reached at ecampuzano@statesmanjournal.com. Find him on Bluesky at @ederc.bsky.social or Threads @ederc.

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Oregon

Is it legal to point security camera at a neighbor’s house in Oregon?

Published

1 day ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

Is it legal to point security camera at a neighbor’s house in Oregon?

The number of security cameras in the U.S. is growing, with an estimated 85 million installed by 2021.
In Oregon, it is legal to point security cameras on your property toward public areas like streets and sidewalks.
While you can generally point a camera at a neighbor’s house, aiming it into private areas like bedrooms or bathrooms is illegal.

There are millions of homes and businesses with security cameras and the number is only growing.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, surveillance camera installations in the U.S. were expected to grow from 47 million in 2015 to about 85 million by 2021.

An estimated 10 million Amazon’s Ring doorbell cameras are in use nationwide, according to a 2023 report from Politico, and dozens of other companies have made their own doorbell cameras to jump on the craze.

At the same time, concerns over surveillance are on the rise. Ring ended its partnership with Flock, a Georgia-based tech surveillance company, in February. Throughout 2025, Eugene and Springfield residents fought back against the installation of Flock license-plate reader cameras, which led to them being taken down seven months later.

On your private property, what laws exist around security cameras and where they can point? The Register-Guard looked at state and municipal laws to find out.

Can you point a security camera at the street or sidewalk?

Yes. You can absolutely point security cameras located on your property at the street.

There are no laws around recording video in “public view.”

“Public view” is classified as any area that can be readily seen by normal, unaided vision when viewed from a public place, including streets.

Can you point a security camera at your neighbor’s house?

Usually, yes, your surveillance cameras can be pointed toward others’ homes. While there are no specific Oregon laws against installing security cameras that are directed at your neighbor’s home, you may want to be careful where exactly it’s pointed.

If you have a doorbell camera, for example, that points directly from your front door to your neighbor’s front door across the street, that’s completely legal.

Anything visible in “public view” is permissible to video as long as you remain on public or your own property.

According to a city of Eugene spokesperson, there are no city laws against a private party having a security camera and what direction it is pointing.

However, it can get tricky, depending on where exactly you point your cameras. For example, if you have a two-story home and you point your security camera into your neighbor’s backyard, that might be harder to defend in court. It all hinges on ORS 163.700 — Invasion of personal privacy.

Can you point a surveillance camera into your neighbor’s bedroom or bathroom?

Effectively, no. You cannot point a camera into your neighbor’s bedroom or bathroom without risking breaking Oregon law.

This would likely be a violation of ORS 163.700, constituting an invasion of personal privacy in the second degree.

The law extends to any recording of another person’s “intimate area” without consent in places where the person recorded has a “reasonable expectation of privacy concerning the intimate area.” As defined by Oregon law, “intimate area” includes nudity and undergarments typically covered by other clothing.

Because people typically change their clothing in bedrooms and bathrooms, a security camera pointed into those rooms would more than likely capture them nude or in their undergarments, which would violate Oregon law.

Where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy extends beyond bedrooms and bathrooms. According to Oregon law, it also includes, but is not limited to, locker rooms, tanning booths and any area where a person undresses in an enclosed space that is not open to public view.

Invasion of personal privacy in the second degree is a Class A misdemeanor, which can result in a fine up to $6,250.

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on X @mirandabcyr.

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