Caleb Warnock - DAILY HERALD | Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 11:00 pm
American Fork Police and Council candidate Jason Porter have each apologized following a controversy over violent crime rates in the city.
On Tuesday the City Council released a statement speaking out against Porter for saying the city has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the state, causing Porter to rescind his comments.
On Wednesday, with permission of Mayor Heber Thompson, Police Chief Lance Call said he phoned Porter and each apologized. Call said he had meant to phone Porter on Monday but couldn't because he was dealing with the football game-pheasant investigation.
In a four-page statement issued to media by the City Council on Tuesday, Call said "the assertion American Fork has the highest rate of violent crime in the state of Utah is totally inaccurate. The actual crime numbers reported to the Bureau of Criminal Identification and to the FBI simply do not support that assertion. Not only are we not the highest in the state of Utah, we are not the even the highest in Utah County."
In a candidate interview published in the American Fork Citizen on Oct. 25, Jason Porter, the only non-incumbent in the race for four Council seats, said one of his goals if elected would be to make American Fork safer.
"We have one of the highest rates in Utah of violent crime," he said in the Oct. 25 interview. "It is alarming to me. I want to bring the small town environment back to American Fork. Through my leadership and my business savvy I can do that. I can attract the right businesses and work with the Police Department to be more effective in fighting those crimes."
Late Tuesday, Porter said he wanted to take back his earlier statement in light of the city's data.
"I am happy to see it and in light of the statistics provided, I agree that we are not amongst the most violent cities in Utah, as I did state," he said. "I appear to have misspoken... I do want to go on record and say clearly that I do want American Fork to be a safer place to raise our families and I feel strongly that I can help to improve it. Crime aside, we can improve our city's safety in many ways. Even our children's walk to school could be made much safer."
Police Chief Call said he had been asked by the City Council to respond to Porter's claim.
"I can categorically state American Fork does not have the highest crime rate in the state," Porter said in his statement.
Crime data compiled by the Utah State Bureau of Criminal Identification for 2005, the latest data available according to Call, shows American Fork had 29 incidents of violent crime that year, and that Mapleton ranks first in Utah County for violent crimes, and American Fork ranks fourth. When adjusted to show the number of violent crimes committed per capita, Mapleton still ranks first, but American Fork falls to sixth.
Porter said he did not learn of the city's press release until given a copy by the Daily Herald. He said he had not previously seen the data the city provided in the release, but had based his comments on other media reports forwarded to him via e-mail by a friend and resident who said he was voting for him and he wanted Porter to work to change the data.
"I want American Fork to be a safer and more comfortable place to raise our families, and I want to be involved in doing that," he said late Tuesday.
Porter said the city, in their press release, misquoted his original comments, pulling them out of context. Twice in the press release Chief Call said he was responding to a statement by Porter that American Fork had "the highest violent crime rate in the state." Porter said that was unfair, noting he had said the city had one of the highest rates.
By not informing him of their press release in advance, the city had released "information that makes me look less than honest and less than properly prepared." The city should have told him they were releasing a media statement, he said.
Chief Call in his statement said even the numbers quoted by the Bureau of Criminal Identification are wrong.
"American Fork City suffers a significant disadvantage with the BCI numbers since we have been unable to convince BCI that our population numbers should include the Cedar Hills population just as they include Highland for Alpine and Lindon for Pleasant Grove," he said. American Fork provides police service for Cedar Hills, which does not have its own police department.
"We have protested the population numbers and the distortion it brings to our index numbers for the past two years but have been unable to get them to adjust the numbers," Call said.
Using the BCI numbers, the city had 1.36 violent crimes per one thousand residents in 2005, but if the population of Cedar Hills is included, that drops to 0.78, he said. By comparison, West Valley City had a rate of 4.61, Odgen 4.91, Salt Lake City 7.32 and South Salt Lake City 9.33 per thousand population.