Granite students keep officers busy

Arresting kids who threatened to shoot rivals or possess drug paraphernalia. Finding missing kids. Handling ungovernable kids. Investigating vandalism and burglary. Even helping stop a drunken driver.

Granite School District police did that and more on Tuesday, Dec. 16, during what Police Chief Jerry Nielsen says is a slower time of year for his agency.

But a look at his officers' logs for that day, chosen at random by the Deseret Morning News, gives an idea of what the only police department operated by a school district in Utah does, and what its worth may be. Besides constantly patrolling schools and checking on property, here are some highlights:

• 1:46 a.m. Officer Tim Maddox assists the South Salt Lake Police Department in the arrest of a drunken driver on Main Street at 3200 South.

• 8 a.m. Officers do follow-up interviews at Hillsdale Elementary, where a parent complained that a substitute teacher assaulted her son. The boy now says he had been misbehaving while the teacher grabbed and held him while continuing to teach. The parent decided not to pursue charges but asked for the incident to be documented.

• 10:05 a.m. Officer Brandon Singleton goes to Valley Crest Elementary to investigate a vehicle burglary. The car's back window was broken out, but nothing of value was taken.

• 10:06 a.m. Officer Lee Dial goes to Jefferson Junior High, where an administrator has two 14-year-olds in the office for possession of drug paraphernalia. One is released to his parents, and the other is taken to a juvenile receiving center.

• 10:47 a.m. Officer Richard Bullock checks on an abandoned vehicle at the district offices. He finds it had been left there a couple of days after it had broken down but had been burglarized.

• 12:11 p.m. Bullock helps a central kitchen employee who locked her keys in her car.

• 12:40 p.m. While Bullock is patrolling the Granite High School parking lot, he is flagged over by an employee who points to a car with three youths whom he says threatened to shoot other Granite High students.

"I stopped and confronted the three suspects. They would not comply with my orders," Bullock wrote.

He said an 18-year-old became especially belligerent and would not show his hands. A 16-year-old tried to reach in his pockets for unknown items while being placed into custody. They were charged with trespass, disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer. South Salt Lake police provided backup.