SALT LAKE CITY -- The ambush of police in Dallas made most Americans pause and consider how much we rely on police.
It made me think about a couple of officers who came to my church’s festival kicking off the new school year in 2015. They talked to the kids, handed out stickers and water bottles and posed for pictures.
For Max Facts, I wanted to see how Utah treats the men and women who put on a uniform every day, ready at a moment’s notice to rush to help me.
Turns out we could do a lot better.
We pay our police about 20 percent less than the national average, and we hire about 30 percent fewer officers.
In Webster’s dictionary, you can look that up under “underpaid” and “overworked.”
Oh, and Salt Lake City’s crime rate was a touch higher than Dallas’ last year.
