Utah law enforcement officers assigned to patrol the evacuees and Camp Williams are bored — and that's a good thing.
The approximately 550 evacuees living at Camp Williams as of Wednesday have become their own little community. And like all communities, that also means policing is needed, not because problems are expected but in case any should arise.
Law enforcers said they had no idea what kind of people they were getting when evacuees started arriving here. Louisiana residents were simply put on planes as fast as they could be loaded.
Once at Camp Williams, however, evacuees were screened to make sure there weren't, for example, pedophiles housed in barracks next to children.
"We do identify folks, make sure they are housed where there are no problems," said Department of Public Safety Capt. Robert Anderson, head of security for evacuees at Camp Williams.
Of the hundreds of people who arrived at Camp Williams, only "one incident" was found, he said. That person will be required to register as a sex offender while in Utah, something that is not uncommon for any person with a sex crimes conviction who moves into the state, Anderson said.
That person was moved to a different barracks to be farther away from families, he said.
Although evacuees did not have their backgrounds checked before being flown out of the hurricane-ravaged area, officials did search them for contraband, Anderson said.
An undisclosed amount of weapons were seized in New Orleans by the Transportation Safety Administration before some of the evacuees who would eventually be flown to Utah were put on a plane, he said.
The Utah National Guard searched the group again after the evacuees got off the plane in Salt Lake City, but Anderson said no weapons were found.
What was found during a search of belongings was $5,000 to $10,000 worth of jewelry items with the price tags still on them. None of the evacuees have claimed the items. Anderson said the state was investigating whether the items may have come from looting in New Orleans.
For the most part, however, Anderson said things had been quiet at Camp Williams.
"We haven't had a lot of big issues to deal with," he said. "We pretty much have a community policing type of environment."
The biggest problems so far have been medical, Anderson said. The most recent figure from the Utah Joint Information Center was that 22 evacuees had been taken to local hospitals for various ailments. Children with fevers was another problem initially at the camp, he said.
Officials are also preparing for possibly more evacuees.
"We have been told we could receive more folks. It's a possibility," Anderson said.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com