A lot has changed since Salt Lake City established its official police department 175 years ago this month.
Forty men making 25 cents an hour replaced the system first led by a city marshal after pioneers arrived in the valley. Today, there are more than 600 sworn officers, and the department operates with a $135 million budget.
Big changes are on the horizon as the department enters the next chapter in city history, too. The department is working to implement what it calls a real-time crime center, which could be implemented this year. It also hopes to have a new training center in the next decade.
Finding new ways to tackle crime
Salt Lake City police first installed “call boxes” across the city that directed people to the department in 1892, as telephone connections slowly became more available across Utah at the time. It didn’t have any squad cars until 1909, as the automobile became more prevalent.
All of this is to say that technology has changed policing over the past 175 years. As lawmakers sorted through relics from the past on display at the Utah Capitol on Thursday to celebrate the department’s 175th birthday, Salt Lake City Police Deputy Chief Bill Manzanares and Sgt. Joshua Ashdown offered demonstrations of one of the department’s newest features.
The department has tested out drones for a few years now, but it’s also working to ramp up operations soon as a new way to free up time for officers to handle more pressing calls. For example, if police receive a call about a disruptive person, a drone pilot can fly a drone to the scene to assess it. If the situation has cleared up, the call might be canceled before police arrive.
Approximately a third of low-priority calls drones were used on were cleared without an officer arriving on the scene, said Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd. In other cases, police might dispatch civilian response team officers to handle the low-hazard situation.
“It’s a huge efficiency where then we can direct our officers to higher priority calls, where there are safety issues involved,” he told KSL.
They can also assist officers in locating suspects in high-priority calls.
There’s a goal to strategically place drone pods across the city to respond faster to these types of calls when they come in, according to police. It’s one element of a real-time crime center that seeks to improve response times. It’s currently in “the early phases,” but drones, license plate readers, traffic cameras and other cameras can be activated whenever there’s an emergency to speed up response times.
However, that type of implementation, which could be set up later this year, has also raised concerns. City leaders have yet to decide on a $224,000 grant to expand the city’s license plate reader camera system amid residents’ concerns over how that data is used.
“This is supposed to be the most free country on the planet, and since when is creating a system of mass surveillance ... a component of freedom?” said resident Charlie Padilla, during a Salt Lake City Council meeting in December.
Others voiced concerns that data could be sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies. Redd is aware of those concerns, and he said some transparency reporting and auditing might be implemented before the city accepts the grant. He adds that the technologies would only be used when there’s an active situation, and not to spy on residents.
A new training facility?
It wouldn’t be the only major change in police history. Salt Lake City Police Foundation displayed conceptual renderings of a massive new training center the city hopes to build, which would consolidate the aging facilities it uses across the valley.
The ideal facility would include multiple elements, including classrooms, shooting ranges, crime labs, a vehicle course and a “scenario village.” The latter includes makeshift homes, commercial buildings, transit stops and even an airplane cabin — anything the police may respond to on a call — to train officers to be prepared for everything.
The facility could be shared with the city’s fire department or other departments in the state, Redd said.
“Really, for law enforcement in the state, we’re sorely in need for more space for training,” he said, noting that some facilities that departments use are closing soon.
He hopes it could be completed before the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, yet it’s unclear if that might happen. The current facilities have been “woefully inadequate” for decades, but fixing the problem is still a work in progress, said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
There have been some land conversations over the last few years, but a parcel has yet to be identified for the site. The city is still piecing together projected costs and potential funding sources, making all project timelines murky.
“(The concept) is representative of the ambition that we have to get something going that’s appropriate for our police,” she said.