Illicit drugs are identified as Utah's biggest crime problem in a recent survey of law enforcement agencies.
Now, they have to figure out ways to solve it.The survey was distributed to 130 law enforcement agencies, prosecutor's offices and to the heads of criminal and juvenile justice agencies throughout the state.
Mike Haddon told criminal justice officials at a meeting last week that drugs were "far and away" the biggest problem identified among those who make their living out of dealing with crime issues.
Haddon, director of research for the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, said results tallied so far represent 65 percent of the state's population.
"We feel pretty good about that," he told commission members.
Police agencies as far north as Utah State University's campus police and as far south as St. George were asked to identify the state's top crime issue, steps required to solve it, known obstacles to the success of those steps and ways to implement solutions.
The survey grew out of legislation adopted in the past session that mandated Utah's top criminal justice officials develop a plan to combat Utah's rising index crime rates.
Index crimes are those crimes tallied by the FBI and used to measure a city's per capita crime rate.
While violent crimes like robbery and rape are dropping in most major metropolitan areas, Utah is experiencing an increase.
Utah went from 21st in the nation for its crime rate in 1993 to No. 9 in 1997.
Some responses so far have indentified clandestine drug labs as the No. 1 problem facing the state, and one agency feels middle school truancy is its primary headache.
The results of the survey have been presented to the state's Law Enforcment Committee, and a more comprehensive review will be presented at a statewide crime reduction conference Sept. 22 in St. George.
Statistics revealed at Utah's Crime Summit two years ago said the state experienced an increase of more than 500 percent in drug-related filings from 1992 to 1996.