Granite and Jordan districts are comparable in size, so why is Granite costing 75 percent more a year than Jordan did?

"We provide different services," said Nielsen, who questioned whether Jordan saved as much as reported. "First of all, Jordan didn't have a daytime program."

He says Granite officers also install, maintain and monitor burglar alarms and mechanical and heating systems and handle any needed response. They make minor repairs to broken locks or sealing broken windows, rather than incur the cost of a maintenance worker on overtime.

He says his officers are also able to free up assistant principals and others by handling children with discipline problems whose actions are not necessarily criminal. They can call parents and transport them.

"I think if you compare the number of assistant principals in our secondary schools to Jordan, I think you will see a big difference," Nielsen said.

Workload

In 2004 (through Dec. 19), Granite police responded to 8,187 calls and made 1,533 arrests. In 2003, they responded to 8,490 calls and made 1,776 arrests.

Among the 2004 cases were assaults (including 52 cases of sexual assault), bomb threats (including four with actual explosive devices), gang-related crimes, missing children, weapons, burglaries, vandalism and theft.

They responded to 2,223 calls to investigate suspicious circumstances and 2,990 alarm calls.

Nielsen argues that city and county police are busy with other business and probably could not give schools the attention his department can.

"That's absolutely false," Kennard said.

He said other police are handling crime in the neighborhoods surrounding schools. And Kennard — who has been pushing to create a Unified Police Authority with city police departments — said handling all crime in an area by one department would increase cooperation and efficiency and possibly save money.

But one who sees extra value in Granite's police department is Shelly Pierce, an assistant principal at Jefferson Junior High in Kearns who has also been an administrator at numerous other schools.

"The main advantage is their whole focal point is the schools," she said. "They are quick when we call. They deal almost solely with juveniles, and that is a whole different ball game. . . . If I hear rumors about a fight or trouble, I can ask for extra patrols — and get them quickly."