Utah County police are are having happy holidays.
They are getting an average number of or fewer emergency and complaint calls than expected."Normally, there is an increase in calls around the holidays," said Detective Gerald Nielsen, Orem Department of Public Safety. "We only got 60 reports Wednesday. Ninety calls is about average, and 110 would be a busy night.
"Calls have slowed down this year in Orem. We are having fewer problems than in the last few years."
Provo police are getting an average number of calls.
"There hasn't been an abundance of calls," said Sandy Krieger, Provo Police records supervisor. "There's nothing out of the ordinary."
Krieger said there probably would be more calls, but a substantial percentage of the population leaves for the holidays.
"So many BYU students go to their home states for the holidays, it really decreases activity. It's pretty safe here."
Provo and Orem are much safer than most cities the same size in other parts of the country, she said.
"We are a lot safer than Salt Lake too. People still need to use common sense - lock their cars and take normal precautions - but there is not nearly as much to fear here as (in) many other places."
Nielsen said Christmas day is considered a good shift to work.
"It's hard to be away from your family, but we try to give each officer an hour's break to go home. It's usually a pretty calm, quiet day to work."
Even New Year's Eve is quiet in Utah County.
"Some years we have had problems, especially if the roads are slick, but usually there aren't many problems," Nielsen said. "People take better care of their drunks on New Year's Eve. They watch their friends and give them a ride home if they need one.
"And people leave parties at different times of the night and morning. On a normal night, we might get a large group of drinkers on the roads when the bars close. On New Year's Eve, they're more dispersed."
Krieger said Provo has no more problems with holiday drunks than with everyday drunks.
"We only have extra problems if the weather is bad."
Orem residents who are too intoxicated to drive home can call the Orem Department of Public Safety, 224-7070, for a ride, Nielsen said. "We'll see that they get home OK."
Provo Police will not offer rides.