Growth may be Utahns' No. 1 concern, but crime is a close second. In particular, juvenile crime and gangs.
"They are not only concerned about juvenile crime, they are frightened," said pollster Dan Jones, who conducted 614 interviews in January as part of a poll for the Utah Law Enforcement Strategic Planning Committee, released Thursday by Utah Attorney General Jan Graham and several Utah chiefs of police.The poll was designed to determine how Utahns feel about law enforcement and crime and to ascertain what the public wants done about the crime problem.
When respondents were asked about youth violence and gangs, 71 percent considered it a very serious problem and 24 percent a somewhat serious problem. Only 1 percent said it was not a serious problem.
When they were asked if violent juvenile offenders should be tried as adults, 62 percent said they definitely should and 21 percent said they probably should. "This sends a significant message to the judiciary and to law enforcement," said Logan Police Chief Rich Hendricks.
Utahns also appear to support building more prison cells and jails, even if it means raising taxes. Of those questioned, 72 percent believed jail space was inadequate or somewhat inadequate. Some 61 percent said they strongly or somewhat favored increased taxes to pay for incarceration of criminals.
They also support taking property and other assets from drug dealers. When asked if forfeiture laws were appropriate for those who sell drugs, 63 percent said they were very appropriate and 18 percent somewhat appropriate.
"That sends a strong message to law enforcement and the Legislature that such methods should be enhanced, not reduced," said Reed Richards, chief deputy in the attorney general's office.
The poll also indicated Utahns trust and support their police officers but consider them to be more at risk. Some 89 percent said officers are more at risk today than in the past.
"The perceptions of the general citizenry are well-founded. We are not as safe as we used to be," said Wayne Holbrook, president of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association.
Of those who had experiences with law enforcement officers, 82 percent considered it a positive experience, whereas 8 percent said it was negative. "This tells us they (citizenry) do trust our officers," Graham said.
Utahns also want to see officers better educated, with 95 percent believing it was important or very important that officers complete continuing education requirements. Some 65 percent believe police officers should be college graduates, 21 percent indicated a high school diploma was adequate.
The poll was the result of a long-range planning effort by Utah's law enforcement community. University of Utah Police Chief Wayne D. Shepherd said they wanted to determine if the public had the same perceptions of crime problems as do the officers.
"What we found was we were not communicating with the citizens, we were not telling them what the problems were," he said.
So what happens now? "Where we go from here is really up to the citizens of Utah," Shepherd said.
The poll results, which were not available for public review, have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.