OCR Text |
Show Crime Rises in -0iWvTOi:7l(ioi . Abundant recreation opportunities, op-portunities, clear air and a better quality of life have attracted thousands of visitors visit-ors and new residents to Park City and Summit County over the past year. Unfortunately, with the influx in-flux of new people has come a dramatic increase in criminal activity. According to a report recently compiled by the Bureau of Criminal Identification, Identifi-cation, Summit County for 1978 is credited "with having the highest crime rate per capita then any other Utah county with the exception of Salt Lake. Based 011 total population 7,200, Summit County had 408 reported criminal offenses in 1978 which amounted to 56.67 crimes for evjery 1000 residents. resid-ents. Of the 408 part-one offenses, which include murder, mur-der, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny theft and car theft, 278 occured in Park City and 130 in . the rest of Summit County. The report which estimates esti-mates Park City's population at 4,700, does not however take into consideration tourist tour-ist and transient population which, given the areas flourishing tourist industry, makes the state's criminal index highly inaccurate. Park City Polic Chief Mike Crowley admitted that the City has seen an increase in criminal activity over; the past year but added that it has merely kept up with the increases in full-time as well as transient population. Crowley maintains that Park : City supports a population of 8,000 on any given day if transient figures are added to the number of full-time residents. "With population figures like that," comments Crowley, "Park City's crime rate is far below the state average". The chief also -draws attention to the fact that Park City had practically no violent crimes in 1978, with the exception on . one-armed robbery ;which Crowley maintains is suspect and seven assaults. Crowley attributes at-tributes the low incident of violent crimes in Park City to excellent patrol work by his officers, an expanded crime prevention program and a greater awareness of the role of citizens in preventing crime. "I think it says a lot for the force and the citizens" said the Chief. Of the non-violent crimes commited in Park City during the year, Crowley maintains most are directly related to the City's resort industry. He points out that of the 175 thefts reported during the year, nearly 80 percent were ski thefts. The rest, he maintains, were thefts from automobiles, many of which belonged to vacationing tourists. He further explains that most of the 82 burglaries reported at any time and as many as six. "Last year, about 80 percent of those in our jail were in for alcohol violations . But this year they are in for committing major crimes," said Robinson. Although Robinson admits that criminal activity, may have increased as much as fifty percent during the year, he, like Chief Crowley, maintains that the state's population figures are inaccurate inac-curate and misleading. "If those figures took into consideration the thousands of transient people who are in the county everyday, they 'would show that Summit (County has a crime rate less than the state ay erage, " he said. In an attempt to deal with the dramatic increase in criminal activity Robinson, says the County Commissioners Commis-sioners are going to have to open their budget and appropriate funds for additional addi-tional deputies. Currently, Robinson has only five full-time deputies besides himself and two part time. "The County is so large that we just can't adequately cover it all," he said adding that one of the msot menacing problem areas of the County is the vast National Forest. Robinson "says that although al-though the forest-areas come under the jurisdiction of the National Forest Service, his deputies are called on constantly to assist with the growing number of criminal violations in those areas. Robinson maintains that the problems in the National Forest have been dramatically dramatical-ly increased this year by the gas shortage. "With the gas shortage, people from the Wasatch Front are taking shorter trips and a great many of them are taking those trips to Summit County, " said the Sheriff. Pete Pierson, a Ranger in the Kamas District of the Wasatch National forest, says that there are nearly twice as many people using the forest this year than last -and that criminal activity has kept up with the crowds. According to Pierson, most of the criminal activity within the National Forest consists of "beer and pot parties" and campsite thefts. He says he relies heavily on Deputies Leon Wilde and Bob Bates to assist him in dealing with these crimes because the County Sheriffs office can prosecute faster than the ' Federal Government. Deputy Leon Wilde says , that all crimes are up in the National Forest this year from campsite thefts to major felonies, and that he just doesn't have the time to cover the entire area adequately. ad-equately. "Everyday is like a ' holiday this year, ' he says, "and we just don't have enough help to keep up with the crowds". took place in condominiums or i rental units, many of wkich were vacant when the crimes occured. The Chief hoWever adds with pride that . mq$t of those burglaries . have been solved and Uhe: stolen property returned to owqers;. ' 4 Our, follow-up in- vest igat ions conducted by Rob Berry have been very : successful" says Crowley. In fact, I'd say we have the best records; in the state in that area".; In th;earea of alcohol and drug violations, Park City officers arrested three juveniles ju-veniles for drug sales and fivej -adults for drug possession posses-sion Three juveniles were arrested for alcohol violations viola-tions and . seventy-eight adults. ad-ults. At the County level, one adult was arrested during the year for drug sales; twenty-five juveniles and fifty-two adults , for alcohol violations. , Judge Jim Kilby admitted that .he has "seen a substantial substant-ial increase in criminal cases which have come before him during the past year, adding that on a County wide basis most of that increase has been in the area of major criminal activity opposed to misdeamenors. Suprisingly, according to Kilby, the vast majority of major criminal offenses have been commited com-mited by Salt Lake area opposed to Summit County residents. He said that out of ten burglary suspects currently cur-rently on record, he could only think of one who was a resident of Summit County. "I guess Summit County has become a pleasing place for criminals to do their dirty work", said Kilby. The Judge did however add that the largest increases in major ; criminal activity have been apparent in the outlying outly-ing County areas opposed to Park City where he thought those type of offenses might be on the declhie. Judge Kilbyaid he cart only attribute the increase in criminal activity to a rapidly expanding full-time as well as transient population. Summit County Sheriff Ron Robinson concurred with Judge Kilby, admitting that he has seen a staggering increase in major criminal offenses during the past-year. past-year. "We have had felonies up the ying-yang," said the Sheriff, who added they have hatfno less than three felons in the County Jail at Coalville |