Public safety conundrum

Recently, Salt Lake police conducted an intensive drug sweep that resulted in 241 arrests in the vicinity of Pioneer Park. More than half of the arrests were for alleged felony violations, most involving possession or distribution of narcotics.

Area business owners and other park neighbors viewed this four-day enforcement activity as a positive event. Police termed the event a success.

Indeed, police need to send a message that the community will not tolerate drug purchases or drug use in the vicinity of Pioneer Park. Interestingly, no people were arrested in the park itself, something police attribute to the recent installation of surveillance cameras.

While such events impress upon community members that police take drug crimes seriously, this event also spotlighted the severe shortage of jail space in Salt Lake County. As officers made hundreds of arrests, the Salt Lake County Metro Jail brimmed to capacity. Temporary holding cells were used to accommodate more than 100 inmates who could not be housed in regular cells. This surge also was due to a sweep conducted by the Utah Highway Patrol.

Eventually, the jail had to release nonviolent felons, people with multiple DUI convictions and some being held in lieu of $10,000 bonds.

There's got to be a better way to run a jail. This is not a criticism of Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder. Rather, it is an acknowledgement of the unworkable status of existing county corrections resources. Salt Lake County needs to reopen the Oxbow Jail. The County Council must find the resources to both open the mothballed facility and properly staff it.

The mass arrests conducted by Salt Lake City pointed to another problem, the lack of drug-treatment funding. Police Chief Chris Burbank, appropriately, noted in a press conference following the weekend sweep that curtailing demand for narcotics is an important tool in addressing the community's drug problem.

These are difficult issues during healthy economic times. But now the tax bases of cities and counties are shrinking as the economy flounders. Elected officials are loathe to raise taxes when people are losing jobs and other economic indicators are sputtering.

But it is also true that certain crimes can increase during economic downturns, which creates further stresses on law enforcement and corrections facilities. These trends portend difficult decisions for city and county councils, but elected officials must not lose sight of how law enforcement and incarceration are essential functions of government.