Inside 84045

Posted By Mike Kieffer on October 8, 2009

The Fifth question: What are your goals/plans for the Saratoga Springs Police Department?

Jeff Francom – Mayor

First of all to make sure our department has what the need to appropriately protect our citizens while ensuring they adhere to sound fiscal policy.

Mia Love – Mayor

Our Saratoga Springs police department is a great resource for our city and we should welcome them into our community. They provide much greater service while costing a comparable amount to what the county charged us. I believe that some of the perceptions regarding our police department are affected by a lack of communication and misinformation. We can do better in communicating. If I am elected as your Mayor I will use our available resources to get information to the public. Our residents want to be informed of staffing coverage, cost, budget/pricing, special projects, neighborhood watch events and community policing efforts. I will use resources such as inside84045, our city website, the local paper and our city newsletters to keep residents informed.

Michael McOmber – City Council Member

I understand that the Saratoga Police Department is currently less expensive for the city than when we were with the County Sheriff’s Department and they are under budget this year. I think that this is commendable and I will encourage them as their next City Council Representative to continue to look for areas to stay under budget. They understand that they need to protect and to serve the citizens of Saratoga Springs and I will work with them to make sure they are able to do that to the best of their ability.

Jim Miller – City Council Member

The Chief of Police and the officers that serve Saratoga Springs, I feel, have done a great job at working with the community to get them involved with programs, such as Community Outreach, Neighborhood Watch, and the Citizens Assisting Police. Continued communication with the residents about what is going on in the city is important to developing a trusting relationship with the residents and law enforcement officers. Also, we need to continue to support the police department and the work they do for our city in a financially responsible way and with support from the residents.

Michael Simpson – City Council Member

My overriding goal for the Saratoga Springs Police Department is to help it become a part of this city the residents can be proud of. When we drive down the road and spot one of our police officers we should feel a sense of safety and pride, not a sense of fear and panic. The police department is part of our cities Public Safety division and exists solely to help ensure public safety; they should never be looked to as a source of revenue. Taxation through policing is wrong and should never be practiced in our city.

At the inception of the police department there was a lot of discussion about the importance of community policing. We were told that our police department was going to focus on becoming a part of our communities. We were going to see officers frequently walking through our parks and subdivisions getting to know the residents and helping them feel protected. I would like to see this aspect of community policing more often.

I applaud the Police Department for pushing volunteerism and community involvement through their Citizen’s Academy and their Citizens Assisting Police (CAPS) program. By promoting these programs the Police department can not only provide more services to the community by utilizing volunteers they can also help to dispel myths by informing citizens about the actual workings within our police department.

Cecil Tuley – City Council Member

I have had several conversations with people who both oppose having our own police department and believe getting our own department is the best thing since the proverbial sliced bread. Before I was appointed to the council and in response to of some of the concerns that have been raised, I filed a GRAMMA request and obtained records of salaries of all city employees. I reviewed the salaries of just about everybody and concluded that there were none that were really out of line with responsibilities. Since the citizens finance committee in partnership with the city manager had already trimmed overall employment considerably, I was, and am, comfortable that the police department is not overstaffed at this time. I also do not believe they are particularly understaffed.

I still need to look further into issues like expenditures for vehicles and equipment to see what can be done to insure that they have the necessary resources to perform their jobs, yet hold to efficient use of their resources. I also hope to take some duty rides with officers to get a better picture of what they perceive their role in the community to be.

There is a possibility that the SS police department could get a contract to service Bluffdale too. I have looked at the proposal, and, if every detail goes as advertised, Saratoga Springs could make a profit on that deal. That profit could be used to better equip our department, or to lower the current cost of operating our police department.

This issue needs a lot more examination before a clear conclusion can be made. We need adequate safety resources, but need to have those services provided at an affordable cost. Determining what is affordable vs. what level of services we will have is a difficult and subjective task. I will work to provide what we need and can afford, gradually improving service as resources allow.

NOTE: Next question: What are your goals/plans for the Saratoga Springs Fire Department?

I am not editing any of the responses. They are being posted as I received them from the candidates.

Categories: Elections 2009, Police Department
Tags: candidate questions, election 2009, Police