Reader comments
South Salt Lake urged to disband police

an other thing these people in SSL can do is organize a well operated neighborhood watch. the police departments have little to work with and they do the best they can. it's easy to complain to get a problem fixed, its hard to actually fix it yourself.

Every other community in SL County has either gone to its own law enforcement or is thinking about it because of poor service from the Sheriff's Office. There's a lot of things SSL can do and compacts they can make with other agencies to alleviate their crime problem. The demographics and transient traffic in SSL create unique problems for the city. Contracting with the Sheriff's Office will change neither.

I have owned businesses in both South Salt Lake and in Salt Lake and I have been more impressed with the police services in South Salt Lake compared with the "Big City". I agree with the above comments that the citizens need to get more involved in neighborhood watches and not just rely on uniformed officers to do everything. It is easy to complian and blaim someone else for what is the communities responsibility to support those officers.

This is an EXCELLENT idea. The Sheriff's Office truly can, and does, offer a better police service. Bigger pockets and less small town politics equals better police service. I hope this can work and more citizens jump on board.

I don't live in SSL, so I don't know what's best to do. But shutting down the police department, from a common sense standpoint, seems to be a bad idea. At least to me.

We should have a valley wide police force. We have valley wide criminals.

SSL did have a very good Neighborhood watch, but the city got rid of it�Murray has the same traffic as SSL, but they don�t have the same crime problems�Why?

I will say this, South Salt Lake needs as much help as they can get and if the Sheriffs office can provide it then why not look into it.

How did the city shut down the neighborhood watch program??

I would have to disagree with "South SL Business Owner�s" comment of "It is easy to complain and blame someone else for what is the communities responsibility to support those officers" so what you are saying is that the residents should not complain on slow response times? I refer back to the 50 tires that got slashed. A resident saw it happen, called the police and 20-30 min. later the police showed up. Of course during this time more tires got slashed and the vandal got away. What would the resident�s responsibility be there? Go and approach the vandal? Come on! I agree neighborhood watch�s are great, but you can only do so much without risking your on life.

Ask the Mayor, it was called COP (Citizen on patrol) I think a lot had to do with a new Mayor and New Chief....

All of you who think the city police are better don�t live in south salt lake. It is a sad city! Its sad that you have a whole block of cars that have been slashed and police take their sweet time getting there, its sad that you have witnesses wanting to make reports about incidents and the police don�t feel like they need to take them, its sad that my house has been broken into three times in one week and nothing came from it, its sad that the police can go out and indorse candidates running for office because the ones they indorse claim they will give them a pay raise even though they are not the best candidate they go out in their uniforms and persuade the vote, its sad that the mayor is scared of the sheriff and lets the sheriff make his decisions for him, south salt lake is a sad city! We need this change! The police have too much power over city officials, they are there to serve us not tell us how we should live our lives!

Part I
I do not live in SSL, however, the comments of the Mayor disturb me greatly. Let�s recap, �I don't think that this has any support in the council and it definitely doesn't have support by me," he said. "I think our police department is doing an excellent job. We're providing as good a service as can be provided." Earlier in this article it stated, �� the Deseret Morning News in November said South Salt Lake had the highest ratio of violent crime in the state.� So the Mayor is not aware of the crime statistics or he is not aware of Goldhardt�s efforts? In addition, if the Mayor is not aware of the crime statistic he SHOULD BE! And if he is aware of it why would he state,� � I think our police department is doing an excellent job. We're providing as good a service as can be provided." I think the point of Goldhardt is to lower the crime rate. Which I feel should be the Mayor�s concern also. What I read in this article is the Mayor doesn�t seem to be too worried about crime. Perhaps a change is in order.

Part II
For the Mayor to speak on behalf of the city council is a tricky business, �I don't think that this has any support in the council ��, I would like to hear the opinions of the council members in regards to criminal activity in SSL. As an outsider, and based on what I have read, if SSL is indeed one of the highest ratio of violent crime areas in the state, then I have to call it what it is, the current system is NOT working; time to try something else, or dramatically add to it.

My only complaint about the SSLPD is the absence of the chief during both of the recent shootings. He should have been the media spokesman when these shootings occurred, not a detective. Where's the Chief?

The problem with South Salt Lake is not the police force. Its the slum lords that allow anyone and everyone to live in their property. There is a direct connection between crime and poverty. Clean up all the rentals in SSL and the crime rate will go down.

"SSL Resident" I agree with your comment 100%

South Salt Lake is a pretty depressing place to live in general and I totally agree with the above "slum lord" comment. I see neglect almost everywhere here (whats the deal with the friggin roads? 3300 S..... just look at it...) but I don't see the police not doing their jobs. Least not in my neighborhood thank God.

How do you propose slum lords determine who is acceptable to rent and who is not?

Is it that hard to screen your tenants? In my pathetic townhome community I have "neighbors" that move in and are typically gone about 3 months later, either having been evicted or just bailing on their lease. They do stay long enough to annoy the heck out of everyone though. You cant tell me they don't have a history and theres no way to check it.