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Show ''hi r M 7v III! IS I . . . fv-rn H4JiJ H . '!:; I ;.. r . j 'J J k . I' .'."! P '. i 1 ; I ; i 1 1 1 1 h i I i ' JJ j JZZZD t'''1'1' -I ri!i!i!ii!iHl' v""'k V J ! - - , 1 r QQ52l:::; THE VERNAL CITY Police Department is better trained and equipped than ever before. The department has undergone enormous changes since the first city marshal mar-shal was appointed in 1894. From routine calls, which is what officer Trey Wade is doing here, to involved investigations, the Vernal Police Department is prepared to meet any challenge. . Police depan-menv sees massive vransvormavson With annual recertification going on last week, and the force scoring higher than ever, what does that mean in terms of police protection to individuals? According to Chief of Police Robert. Downard, Vernal City, the police department has undergone a massive transformation since 1974. Jonathan "Jock" Jones was hired, as chief of police in 1974. At that time the Vernal Police Department had been in existence ex-istence for 80 years, and had never investigated in-vestigated a felony crime. Until that time it was believed investigation was the duty of the sheriff's department and the police department just allowed allow-ed that to be the case. With the hiring of Jock Jones, the first felony investigation took place, but the quality of police protection did not improve radically overnight. Downard said he has great respect for the ability of Jock Jones, but coming from the Dark Ages involved a substantial amount of growing pains. At that time the department was not well received and not well respected. Because of that there were few experienced ex-perienced officers on the force. Especially in the upper ranks there were few officers with any experience. Downard said it was not uncommon to have lieutenants with little more than a year's experience. This created obvious ob-vious problems. Power struggles existed with the department and internal bickering was common. Jock Jones was charged charg-ed with building a new police department depart-ment from scratch. Prior to Jones, records were kept on a legal pad and when the pad was full, was thrown in a box somewhere. Searching Sear-ching for a past report was a joke. Jones had to build a modern organization, organiza-tion, squealch the internal strife, change the attitudes of the public toward law enforcement and get funding fun-ding from somewhere. Downard said about 1976 was the turning point for the department. About that time Jones had started to turn the corner toward solving the internal in-ternal problems. Downard said that by 1980, when he was named chief of police, the department was well on its way to becoming a quality modern organization. Most of those problems have now been put in the past. Average experience ex-perience on the force is between four and five years. Downard says the department is very professional, has received the funding it need's, and is now recognized as a leader in the state in the training programs offered through the department. Downard gives a lot of the credit to the City Council for the progress of the force. They have been willing to come up with the money necessary to run a top notch department and have been very supportive of the police department. Downard says the Vernal Police Department now has capabilities comparably com-parably sized departments usually don't have. They now have recognized recogniz-ed expert witnesses in several areas and Officer Chris Symms is currently involved as an apprentice in a fingerprinting finger-printing program through the state which will make him an expert witness in that area. A crime lab has now been started which will enhance the evidence connecting capabilities of the department. Downard said one of the problems the department has had in the past, and which is typical of small departments, is an inability to connect evidence and suspects. The crime lab is now giving the department that capability. The Vernal Police Department is about the right size, according to Downard. It is a fallacy, he said, that the department is growing too big, too fast. They now have 21 sworn officers and even that force could not handle some of the things they are doing without a lot of donated time by officers. of-ficers. A prime example of that is the shooters alley, which was put in use last week durina force recertification. That was built by officers donating their time and even tools to the project. pro-ject. Only $2,000 was allocated for the project, and the budget was kept intact by 250 donated hours. A pre-built alley similar to the one they now have would cost $15,000 to $20,000. Downard thinks the real success of the department lies with quality officers of-ficers who are willing to dedicate themselves to their jobs. The Vernal Police Department has a completely open-door policy. If someone has a gripe, Downard says he doesn't want to hear about it in the coffee shop. Everyone has differences, and that is only to be expected, but the thing that can kill a department quicker than anything else is internal strife. He said he has learned from the situation of his predecessor how important the internal inter-nal structure and cohesion of the department is. Downard came to the department in 1976, at about the time Jock Jones was finally turning the department into a respectable force. He said he learned a lot from being involved in-volved in those problems. Not only things that can and do go wrong, but things that work. Thus, the open-door policy, although Downard admits there have been a couple of times when he was surprised at how candid the officers have been in confronting him. Nonetheless, he believes in the policy. And from the dedication of the officers, he thinks it is obviously working. Another policy implemented by Downard has been to give responsibility responsibili-ty to officers. This makes each officer an integral part of the department, and not just another uniformed officer who shows up when and only because his name appears on the duty roster. This is true of new officers as well as officers who have been with the department for several years. From expert witnesses to internal affairs, Downard attempts to involve every officer of-ficer who shows a desire, in the working work-ing of the department. Continued on page 3 Police... Continued from page 1 The Vernal Police Department has a five year projection plan which is updated every year to take into account ac-count new factors which may have come up. Downard said the department depart-ment went throughout an organizational organiza-tional change shortly after he was appointed ap-pointed chief of police. He said everyone was very concerned at that time about the abnormal growth in the area, not just in police protection, but in other avenues. The department at that time implemented a system where they could grow to 50 officers, if needed, without a major prganiza-tional prganiza-tional change. He said they decided to do that, rather than hire a substantial amount of officers, because the growth could not be predicted. This way the department can grow to meet the needs, and remain solvent even if those needs do not materialize, which is the present case. Downard said he realizes the concerns con-cerns of the people with funding of all governmental agencies. The proposed budget for this fiscal year is basically a "toe to line" budget, Downard said. The theory of how many officers a police department needs and how much money they need to operate is a highly contested issue. Even though the city of Vernal has less than 10,000 population, over 20,000 people impact Vernal every day. Vernal is a different situation than a "bedroom community." communi-ty." Some areas basically house people, peo-ple, and people travel to their employment, employ-ment, to shopping centers and to recreational sites. Other areas house all those facilities. Vernal is like the latter. People from distances quite far away come to Vernal, because it is the hub of the surrounding area. The more people that impact an area, the greater the number of crimes and the greater the need for police protection. In determining how many officers are Deeded, each area must be considered con-sidered by its own merits, not by the population. Downard compared Vernal Ver-nal to North Ogden, beause they are about the same population. In 1981 North Ogden, because it is a bedroom community, only had about 150 part one offenses. Vernal, on the other hand, had over 600 part one offenses. To compare the needed police protection protec-tion in the two areas is absurd, according accor-ding to Downard. He said the Vernal Police Department is operated on about $45,000 per year, per officer, all inclusive. This is about the same as the Salt Lake City Police Department. There are other things which add to the credibility of the Vernal Police Department. It's reputation makes it difficult to get on the department. This allows them to get better than average officers. They are also not afraid to have internal affairs investigations. Since Downard has been chief, there have been 20 such investigations. Although there has never been an officer of-ficer terminated due to one of these investigations, in-vestigations, there has been disciplinary action taken in some cases Downard says these kind of things have gone far toward raising the public opinion of the department. People Peo-ple can rest assured that should they have a problem with an officer, they will be fairly dealt with. Officers have also come to know that the department, and especially Downard, will stand behind him if he is in the right. This also adds to the morale of the department. One of the major goals Downard had when he became chief of police was to raise the public opinion toward the police department. He thinks they have come a long way toward that goal. That is reflected in the fact that the response rate has increased 314 percent since 1980. Although crime continues to increase, it has not increased in-creased as dramatically as the response rate. Downard thinks the main reason for the increase is simply simp-ly that the public has more confidence in the department than in the past. He is very pleased about that. Police department objectives for the immediate future are to complete the crime lab that has now been started and to get more training in specialized specializ-ed areas. Although Downard says he is pleased with the training now being given to officers, he will never be satisfied. That kind of attitude has resulted in the Vernal Police Department Depart-ment being the only training program in the state that is sanctioned by the Police Officers Standards and Training. Train-ing. The Vernal program has also been recommended to other departments in the state. Downaf-d said he is very pleased with the Vernal Police Department and even though he has had a great deal to do with the success, he has no intentions of using his reputation to move on to another position. His personal per-sonal goal is just to do the best job he can until he retires, then go fishing. For the department, Downard believes public awareness is the key to effective law enforcement. Programs Pro-grams have been established to bring the public more into the picture. A citizen's watch program has been implemented, im-plemented, plus a secret witness program, pro-gram, a youth Explorer post, and right now the department is in the process of implementing a drug awareness program directed towards children. Downard cautions people that any law enforcement agency can only be so good. In order to be really effective, citizens must become involved. When everyone is looking out for everyone else, law enforcement becomes extremely ex-tremely effective. |