This is a concept that has taken a long time to develop. Hopefully, the turf issues can be put aside to make this work. It is nonsensical to have such a fragmented patchwork of law enforcement agencies in the valley. This is a great step in the right direction.

Of course Winder wants this. It stops the bleeding of smaller cities giving up on poor service by the Sheriff's Office. The problem is that it will be police work run by a committee. Makes no sense. Law enforcement is for the professionals and the more local, the better. It is not like fire fighting where the object is to put out a fire. There are many complicated constitutional issues for the police. To have special response teams, like SWAT, makes sense on a county-wide basis. But to have a mega police department run by committee, hang on.

While I agree that it would be more efficient to have a single law enforcement agency in this valley, the only way that will ever work is if the local governments have some input into how police services are conducted within their jurisdictions. If this unified district comes together, it will be very interesting to see if the contract cities are still singing a happy tune after a year or so of having absolutely no input into how law enforcement is conducted in their cities. Think again if you now feel that giving a board oversight over finances and policies will make a team player out of Mr. Winder. I believe that the contract cities will quickly learn that his sole motivation is to be in charge and impose his will--to be, if you will, the Supreme Omnipotent Number One I'm In Charge and You're Not Commander of law enforcement in Salt Lake County. He has not let niceties such as contractual obligations control his actions before, and I suspect that same (lack of) character trait will continue in whatever he touches, including this proposed district.

Only Jim Bradley could come up with a "police by committee" concept. Without question one of the more briliant members of the County Council.

I don't understand what the fuss is all about. I want to pay fewer taxes and when the County comes forward with an idea to do just that you jump on them.

We don't need dispatch centers in each city. We don't need dozens of "support" personal in each city. Certralize it and save some dough.

Crime certainly is not stop at city boundaries. It's a COMMUNITY issue. Let's start treating it as such.

I live in Midvale and the police were called this last weekend to deal with an issue with a tenant at mny appartment complex. They arrived and dealt with the situation, arrested one person and left. ABout 10-15 minutes after they were gone Cottonwood Heights police show up sirens and lights going, out of their jurisdiction, for a problem that was already dealt with. I understand they want to feel important and tell their mayor that they are doing such a good job that they are helping surrounding cities but lets face it, it was a waste of time and money.

Strangely when the county was policing CH we never had their officers here unless Midvale PD called for assistance. So tell me again how this is a bad idea?

The unified fire authority has helped the cities and county, this is obviously the start of something similar with the policing and will obviously help.

If you readi between the lines ("If too many cities end their contracts with the sheriff for police services, residents in the unincorporated areas will shoulder too much of the costs to pay for policing.") you will see that this is just a way for the County to balance their budget on the backs of the cities who contract with them. Based on the comments, it is clear that they are subsidizing unincorporated County islands. Cities with their own forces pay full freight. Why not the unincorporated County?

This has been an ongoing County practice for years, and not just with public safety. The County needs to own up and step up to their responsibilities to the unincorporated areas in an honest manner.

Corroon, for all his fiscal responsibility talk, is just another politician shifting things around to hide the true cost of something. Those west side cities would be better off hiring a neighboring city to handle their policing rather than the County. This is nothing more than Winder's job justification, protection, rationalization. It is definitely NOT good government, "voting authority" notwithstanding.

It's only taken Sheriff Winder two years to catch on to the benefit of the Unified Police Department that he worked so hard to defeat at the legislature. Now he is claiming the concept as his
"new idea".


We could have been well on our way to a police district if the newly-elected sheriff had kept his word to the contract Mayors and supported the changes at the legislature in 2007.

Looks like the only winner was Cottonwood Heights who figured out how difficult it is to trust this Sheriff. Even with a contract, the Sheriff's attitude was "my way or the highway". And Cottonwood Heights walked away. What makes anyone think the Sheriff would behave any differently with this district?

The residents of Cottonwood Heights are in for sticker shock once they find out what the true cost of their department will be. One only needs to look at the Jordan school district debacle to see how misguided Mayor Cullimore's hairbrained ideas truly are.