SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Police Department says crime has reduced in some neighborhoods across the city – calling their tactics so far, a success.
According to Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown, the department focused on three areas - the Pioneer Patrol Division focus area (from 200 North to South Temple and 700 West to 1000 West), the Central Patrol Division focus area (from 200 South to 400 South and 200 West to South State Street), and the Liberty Patrol Division focus area border from (1300 South to 1500 South and 200 West to South State Street).
“The strategies that we are using to reduce violent crime in salt lake city, they are working,” said Brown.
“for three consecutive months, we have lowered crime in those areas,” said Chief Brown. “It’s the men and women of this police department and the hard work that they’re doing. And they are putting in thousands of hours to combat crime and reduce crime and make salt lake city a safer place for everyone.”
According to data from the Salt Lake City Police Department, from November of last year to the same month this year, violent crime stayed the same in the pioneer division, went down 20% in the central area, and went down by 75 percent in the liberty division.
Chief Brown credits the department’s proactive approach.
“There were officers that went to a local gym where they saw a lot of the valuables just stored in little cubbies, they were getting stolen, so talking with business owners on ways that they can arm themselves against these types of crimes,” explained Chief Brown. “So it’s not any one strategy, it’s the tale of many strategies that’s really going to bring down crime in this community.”
In the Fairpark area that comes under the Pioneer focus area where police have been working to reduce crime, community members say crime still often occurs here, but it feels like it is coming down.
“I’ve seen a lot of effort by police,” credited Nigel Swaby, chair of the Fairpark Community Council. “The North Temple community improvement group meets every Friday, police are typically here with us. There are a lot of police cameras in the area."
"Those prove to be a huge deterrent, I see a lot more officers over here,” said Swaby.
But crime does persist in the city.
“It doesn’t always feel safe,” said Kevin Parke, chair of the Rose Park Community council. “We have homeless camps in our neighborhood. I don’t blame homeless people, but I also know if you’re starving and cold, there are some things that you might want to steal that look promising.”
And all of us have a role we can play – if you see something, say something.
“We felt for a long time that we haven’t gotten a good police response,” said Swaby. “But then again, we don’t always call and so it’s really important that we call on everything, at least to get it into their program so that they know that calls are still happening in this area.”
