| OCR Text |
Show r ! ; ' " ' t ' ; I , ; . I ! r ' - hi : ' . . r ' . , i i ' ' i . ; i i BUILDING CHECKS are just one of the many keep increased crime in control in anticipation things law enforcement agencies are doing to of increased growth. CriiiAifDO DimEDeireent to ;girwfllhi Qn?Dpi(S (aire By Steven Wallis, News Editor Third in a four-part Series : Although the pages of history frequently mention Vernal as a haven lor lawless characters as Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid, law enticement en-ticement has always been a concern li local citizens. Since those days of one sheriff towns tposses, law enforcement has greatly 'wedtomeet local demand for law Girder. But today, law enforcement linking at another problem how to pt up for anticipated growth. II an increase in Uintah County's pcpulation of 61 percent, according to tbelastcensus, statistics show crime is to increasing. Hie 1980 Vernal City crime reporl tows that the city's reported crime ill increased 604 percent over the last to years. A person living in Vernal 0) had a 27.2 percent chance of being wtimized in a crime and an 11.1 percent of being victimized in a serious ne. In other words, one of every four Ne in the city is victimized by crime one inten people are victimized by wious crime. I the 1980 crime rate, if Vernal l"I population ever reached 30,000, es would be 8,006.7 a year and with 1 '".MO population, 27,225 a year. According to Russell Hawk, Rock TO. Wyo. chief of police, the w which increased during the ; J Period in Rock Springs were ' wlmmes, drug traffic, child abuse and family fights. "More crimes were caused by the single worker," he said. One of the problems with law enforcement en-forcement in growth impacted areas, according to Hawks, "is playing catchup catch-up after growth hits." "When you play catch-up, you have to hire people no one else wants, and you have a police force I don't like," Hawk said. "In the past we were usually working a year behind. " To fill vacancies in the police force caused by growth, Hawk said he increased in-creased the pay for police officers in Rock Springs to the highest in the state and implemented a national recruiting program. An officer hired with no experience is paid $1,529 a month starting, and $1,654 a month with experience, ex-perience, Hawk boasts. Hawk also said he is a firm beliver that it is unfair for the people to have to bear the brunt of growth impact. The Rock Springs city council recently finished mitigation negotiations in which Hawk asked and received $50,000 from Texas Gulf who are bringing in a mining project to Rock Springs. The $50,000 which Hawk claims isn't nearly enough, will be used for control of crimes created by the company. "Have someone knowledgable develop statistics for the next five years to get impact money from each project," Hawk suggested. One method used to upgrade the police department's reputation and catch up to growth was to "use the media to tell the people what is going on," Hawk said. "Then the people can go to the mayor or city countil to put pressure on them for more equipment and officers," he said. Although Vernal isn't experiencing the growth of Rock Springs, Wyo., increased crime connected with future growth is being anticipated by local law enforcement agencies. "Anticipated growth is considered a challenge which the department welcomes with the goal of meeting its problems while maintaining the quality of life in Vernal," said Robert T. Downard, Vernal City chief of police. According to Downard, the Vernal Police Department has been steadily upgrading its expertise the last four years giving the force the ability to handle many kinds of crimes which the department could not handle several years ago. "A secondary benefit of this process is the ability to train young officers in these areas," Downard said. "I feel we will be better able to cope with growth than Rock Springs because we have the luxury of hindsight," Downard said. Although Downard said the police department is gearing up for growth, he cautioned about over building. "If something happened where we would build up the department and later have to cut back, it would be disastrous," he said. An example of the upgrading in the department's training is shown by the fact that a Vernal police officer was the first officer in the state to be accepted as an expert witness in the identification iden-tification of marijuana without specific ' advance training in the district and ' circuit courts. According to Sheriff Arden Stewart, the Uintah County Sheriff Department is anticipating a boom situation but there is no telling when it will come. "What we are getting now are prime runners or people who are here to check things out," said Stewart. "These people usually aren't involved in crimes, but as soon as the industry opens up, then the boomers will move in, who are here for only a short period. "Eventually it is going to hit us, we know that," Stewart added. "But right now we are experiencing only a steady increase in crime." |
