This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
There is reason to hope that the role of American law enforcement agencies as "the thin blue line," apart from society, standing between the law-abiding majority and the eternal threat of the more violent and criminal element of society, is slowly wearing away.
In its place is growing a new, less hostile attitude. It has been given such names as community policing or de-escalation. Though the new role of the police might just as accurately be described by a much older term, peace officer.
Recent articles in The Salt Lake Tribune relate some hopeful steps taken in this direction by state and local law enforcement.
In Salt Lake City, the word from Police Chief Mike Brown on down is that officers are to receive a lot more training in methods of de-escalation, or a difficult but potentially life-saving method of using brains, patience and tactics to turn potentially violent outcomes into peaceful resolutions.
As the article pointed out, cases where suspects are talked down rather than shot down are much less likely to make headlines. Which means that officers who are successful at it won't always get the public approval they have earned.
Still, it is a lot better for all concerned when a situation can be resolved without bloodshed. Not only are the lives of suspects, officers and innocent by-standers in less danger, but the whole criminal justice system also manages to avoid another incident which, even if a police shooting would have been legally justified, could have served to undermine the public's faith in the fairness of the system.
Another sign of this less combative approach was the announcement that Salt Lake County's Unified Police Department will be equipping and training some 200 of its officers to administer doses of naloxone. That's a substance that can serve as a life-saving antidote to what otherwise might be fatal overdoses of heroin or prescription opioids.
Utah, over the past 12 years, has suffered the fourth highest rate of drug-overdose deaths in the nation. Heroin and opioid overdoses are the leading cause of accidental deaths in the state, having surpassed motor vehicle accidents.
It is a problem that affects Utahns from all walks of life, and District Attorney Sim Gill won the wholehearted support of the County Council when he provided the cash for the program from his asset forfeiture fund.
In these matters, and others, it is inspiring to see that local law enforcement officials are taking steps to save lives through intelligence and compassion rather than limit themselves to displays of gratuitous toughness and attempts to arrest their way out of drug abuse woes.