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Show Local Law Agency Execs Give Nod To Statewide Statement Panguitch Police Chief Martin Nay and Garfield County Sheriff Than Cooper were among 250 Utah law enforcement officers meeting in St. George where the joint statement state-ment for Utah law enforcement addressing ad-dressing recently publicized police brutality incidents was drafted. The statement was released yesterday yes-terday in Salt Lake City by Utah County Sheriff David Bateman, president of the Utah Sheriffs Association As-sociation and Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Chabries, president of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association. Associa-tion. "We are not so naive as to believe be-lieve that police misconduct will never occur in Utah. However, we are of one mind that it will not be tolerated," the statement read. "The citizens of this State can be proud of the dedicated men and women serving their communities. We strive to hire good people and. to provide the best training possible. possi-ble. In addition, we recognize the need to diligently 'police our own,' knowing we must gain the trust and confidence of the communities we serve. "Utah public safety administrators administra-tors and officers alike are as offended of-fended as the nation in viewing the video of the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. In light of this tragedy, law enforcement administrators ad-ministrators statewide re-state their commitment to professionalism in Utah law enforcement." At the St. George meeting of the Executive Development Institute, Insti-tute, a threc-timcs-a-year seminar for law enforcement executives in Utah, Chief Nay said the widely publicized Los Angeles beating incident in-cident was the topic of substantial discussion, leading to the drafting of the statement released Wednesday in Salt Lake City. "Locally, our officers are properly prop-erly trained in the use of necessary force," said Chief Nay on Tuesday Tues-day ,"but we really don't anticipate the use of force being necessary as might be expected in a large urban area where officers typically face the kinds of problems we simply don't encounter here. The Utah joint law enforcement statement certainly reflects re-flects our thinking," he said. Chief Nay serves as a representative representa-tive on the Peace Officers Training and Standards (POST) council and a member of the Utah Chiefs of Police Po-lice Association. He said the Los Angeles incident is impacting law enforcement agencies nationwide, from the largest to the smallest. Nay said that the St. George seminar provides special training for law agency executives three times a year. Last week's session focused on personnel discipline, civil litigation, and hiring and firing. fir-ing. The thrice-yearly seminars are among a variety of aids provided law enforcement agencies and personnel per-sonnel thaf have proven invaluable in upgrading the quality of law enforcement en-forcement in the state, Nay said. |