Pair square off over White City patrol service

The two candidates for Salt Lake County sheriff are butting heads over police patrol in White City, an unincorporated county area of 6,000 people.

Jim Winder calls it a serious lack in service. Aaron Kennard calls it political fodder.

Winder, a Democrat, says incumbent Kennard, a Republican, has seriously overlooked the small area surrounded by Sandy. Domestic-violence calls take 20 minutes for police response, a statistic that came to light during a recent White City township hearing by Cottonwood Heights City Manager Liane Stillman.

"In a domestic violence situation, someone could be dead by the time the police get there," Winder said.

Not true, Kennard responds. High-priority emergency calls are handled by cops in Sandy, Midvale and Draper. On top of that, the sheriff has been asking the County Council for more White City officers for four years. But that budget request has always been shot down.

"I've been trying to get this to be a big issue for years," he said. "Now it's a political season. It doesn't matter if I'm re-elected or not, I've been pushing it for four years."

Kennard said Winder, who held a news conference about the matter last week, is trying to garner political attention two weeks before the Nov. 7 elections. Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore agrees.

White City has historically relied on county police service for safety. For the last two years, those deputies have come from Cottonwood Heights, the closest city that contracts with the county for police service.

County money has allowed for three additional Cottonwood Heights officers to patrol unincorporated White City, Granite, Willowcreek and parts of the Cottonwood Canyons. But Cullimore said that's not enough.

"Those three officers can't even cover 24-7 for Willowcreek, Granite and the canyons," he said. "It's simply not adequate. So as a result, Cottonwood Heights is subsidizing law enforcement in White City. It's put a real burden on us."

City staff have been working with Kennard on budget requests for 2007. Cottonwood Heights had never taken a "hard line" with White City because it didn't want to disenfranchise the area, Cullimore said.

The issue came to light during a recent White City township hearing, said Paulina Flint, White City Council member.

"We thought we had plenty of coverage. You just don't mess with the safety and security of the public," Flint said. "We shouldn't have this syndrome of 'You folks shouldn't have to be subsidized.'"