The Unified Police Department was a progressive and innovative concept that seemed to balance the needs for local control of law enforcement with the economies of sharing in broader-scale services. It also provided the mechanism for improved communication across city boundaries to better address common criminal activity. We are disappointed that Sheriff Jim Winder does not share our vision of what the UPD could be.
The aim of the UPD was to create a joint regional policing organization that would be governed by the participating municipalities with an appointed chief - just like the Unified Fire Authority (which has been a wonderful success).
Based on nearly two years of diligent work, budgeting, policy setting, benefits planning, etc., the model looked very, very promising for local law enforcement as well. It would have allowed the cities and county to join together on equal footing for the long term - on terms that may have, in time, proven attractive to other cities that could have chosen to join.
After all of our work, after two years of promising to join if the cities chose to proceed and after several unanimous decisions to move forward (including two affirmative and unanimous votes by the UPD board that included Winder), the sheriff reversed course and worked against the legislation necessary to allow the UPD.
We can only assume, as the sheriff has stated, that he simply feared the UPD would undermine his ability to control law enforcement across the county.
It is not we cities that prefer to have our own police departments; if we did, we would not have been pursuing the UPD.
Why do we need local law enforcement to work like the UFA or UPD instead of continuing to contract with the county? Because the county now holds all the cards. Even when it has been unfair and opposed to cities' needs, the county has continued to subsidize one area over another in cash payments and in levels of service.
Coming to reasonable contract terms has been painfully difficult. Overhead charges are simply unbelievable. And there is nothing the cities can do about it, really. That is why every other city has already left the county and now provides its own policing.
It is true that the new sheriff has recently offered to create an administrative control board. (It is not true that the proposed board already exists, as The Tribune Editorial Board recently stated.)
However, even if formed, under state statute the board could only be advisory in nature. It may also be true that most residents are happy with their current policing service. However, we continually receive calls from residents requesting meaningful changes in policing priorities and with concerns about response times when deputies are being pulled into other patrol areas.
With UPD now off the table, we will, of course, continue to work with Sheriff Winder to seek the best contract model possible. At the same time we must now also consider self-providing or joining with other self-providing cities (with or without the county) to achieve the economies of scale and cooperation that would have been possible in the UPD. Why reinvent the wheel?
You need only look at the success of the Unified Fire Authority to see the benefits. Besides, how many cars do you see running on stone tires?
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* DENNIS WEBB is mayor of Holladay; other signatories: Kelvyn H. Cullimore Jr., mayor of Cottonwood Heights; Lynn Crane, mayor of Herriman; and Bill Applegarth, mayor of Riverton.
