Why the Forest Grove Police Department brought the police log back

The weekly Forest Grove Police Log returned to News in the Grove this month after a two-year hiatus. To mark its return, we sent a few questions to Forest Grove Police Department Community Outreach Specialist Lauren Quinsland — who writes the log — about why it went away, how she decides which calls to include, and the voice readers have come to know. Her answers appear below, verbatim.

It’s been two years since the Forest Grove police log was last seen. Why bring it back now?

We decided to bring the Police Log back for a few different reasons, but the primary reason is because we once again have an avenue to reach the community beyond our website and social media.

When it launched in 2013, the Forest Grove Police Log was regularly carried in a couple of local newspapers, both online and one in print. Other police agency logs were picked up along the way, and at one point you could read ours next to other police departments’ logs. We regularly received feedback from community members that they appreciated the opportunity to see what our officers are up to on a day to day basis, learn about what’s happening in their community, and enjoyed the occasional terrible pun.

A couple of years ago, though, we noticed that logs, including ours, weren’t being carried in print or online anymore by the local news outlets.

Knowing that our community appreciates the police log, we did our best to try to self-publish by putting it on the website and sharing it on our social media... but we’re a police department, not a news agency. There’s no way we can generate the kind of traffic that a news agency can. It wasn’t feasible to keep up, and it was a lot of work for just a handful of people to see.

Without a way to reach the community regularly, we officially put the police log to bed in September of 2024.

When “News in the Grove” launched, we started mulling around the idea of bringing it back. I believe we even had some conversations early on with Chas regarding inquiries he received about whether it would return.

It was tabled for a bit due to time constraints and scheduling, and we weren’t sure about how to even go about a re-launch.

The arrival of our new chief turned a page into a new chapter for FGPD, and now we had an outlet to carry it; it seemed like the perfect time to dust it off and bring it back.

Forest Grove residents always want to know more about how their police department is responding to crime and calls. How do you choose what to include in the police log, and what to leave out?

The FGPD receives anywhere from 50-70 calls (think of them as incidents of police activity) per day, sometimes more, which can add up to 400-500 per week. This includes calls and reports generated by the community, as well as self-initiated activity over the course of three shifts, 24/7. Most of them are routine traffic stops, extra patrols, community contacts, or things like noise or code complaints - incidents and interactions that we really don’t have much more to say about them other than that they occurred.

Once those are sort of sifted out, I try to find a sampling of calls that are representative of a week in the life of an FGPD officer that the community might find interesting. I will generally choose a few entries from each shift, and then try to have the right balance of mundane, peculiar, tragic, positive, surprising, amusing, dangerous, (and the occasional outright weird) calls. If there is a major incident that occurred that did not generate a press release, we will generally try to include that.

The goal is to provide a glimpse into our patrol unit and what policing in Forest Grove looks like by sharing real calls for service.

That said, there are also types of calls we will not feature in the log due to being sensitive in nature, as well as guidelines for including or omitting details that might identify callers and involved parties.

You have a distinct writing style; humorous, witty, sarcastic even. Do you have a background in writing?

Professionally, yes, I do indeed hold a BA from Pacific University in Journalism. Well, technically it’s “Media Arts with an Emphasis in Journalism,” but that’s a mouthful.

I spent my university career on the newspaper staff as a reporter and editor, and then wrote the occasional story or column for a small-town biweekly paper for a couple of years. I have some published pieces here and there, as well. It’s never been anything Pulitzer worthy, but I do know how to use a semicolon, still love the smell of ink on newsprint, and am a firm believer in the oxford comma.

I also have a lot of experience in public speaking, radio work, teaching, and even theatre, that I would suggest contribute to a background in communications and the ‘distinctive style’ you mention, probably most evident in our social media content. (Spoiler, yes, it’s the same person writing the log and managing Facebook).

And, of course, there’s the experience that just comes from putting out the log every week and being at the helm of our social media for more than a decade. I started writing the police log in part nearly ten years ago and full time since 2017; I have managed the FGPD social media since I arrived in 2015. That’s a lot of content every week to learn from and work through, and eventually a style and personality just sort of evolves.

On a personal level, I suppose you could say I have been a writer of sorts since I was a kid - be it for publication or just my own creative outlets. Stories, blogs, commentaries, narratives, etc., have always been something I enjoy crafting and sharing, and being able to do the weekly police log or the occasional fun Facebook post are no exceptions.

To this point, though, my fourth grade teacher would also like to chime in from heaven to point out that not only do I have a background of “writing like I talk,” but I also have a background in sarcasm - and she has a few pink detention slips to prove it from when wit was probably a little too sharp for a ten year old.

Is there anything else you’d like News in the Grove readers to know about you or the relaunch of the police log?

I am very excited to bring back the log, though it’ll probably take a few editions to get used to being back in the saddle, so to speak. I’ve received loads of emails, letters, and social media messages over the last two years asking whatever happened to it, and I look forward to being able to answer that question without including “maybe someday...”

I hope that the community enjoys it and finds it interesting, maybe even useful. I hope that it helps them feel more connected to us at FGPD. Lastly, I hope that they remember behind every police officer is someone trying to remember how to spell methamphetamine, affidavit, and subpoena.