CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald | Posted: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 11:00 pm
Saratoga Springs officials created the city's first police department Tuesday evening, and may have simultaneously made all of Utah County's canyons safer.
After voting unanimously to create a city police force, council members' first action was to hire Gary Hicken as the city's first police chief. A retired police chief from California with three decades of police experience, Hicken moved to Lindon a year ago.
Hicken said he spent his career in the Buena Park Police Department near Anaheim, Calif., and was a captain there for 11 years and the department's chief from 2001 to 2004, until he retired.
Since incorporating nine years ago, Saratoga Springs has contracted with the Utah County Sheriff's Office to provide police services. Over the next six months, those deputies will work with Hicken to transition to a city police force, said Mayor Tim Parker.
Ten full-time deputies and a half-time detective are now assigned to Saratoga Springs, said Sgt. Spencer Cannon of the Utah County Sheriff's Office.
As those deputies become available for other assignments, Sheriff Jim Tracy and county commissioners will consider assigning those deputies to patrol area canyons, including American Fork, Provo and its fork canyons, Hobble Creek, Payson and Santaquin, said Dennis Harris of the Utah County Sheriff's Department.
"We've been short a number of deputies for quite some time," Harris said. "It will help us immensely."
The number of visitors to local canyons from around the state and even around the world has increased, as have DUI and traffic problems, he said.
"There are quite a number of folks that head up there," he said. "We want to be a little bit more proactive and bring the number of accidents down."
Deputies now working in Saratoga Springs may apply to continue their positions, said Saratoga Springs City Manager Ken Leetham.
"We will have an open hiring process and whoever wants to apply can apply," he said.
Before being hired, Hicken was interviewed by council members in a work session preceding Tuesday's City Council meeting.
As soon as he discovered the city was thinking about hiring a police chief, "I rushed over," he said to council members. "I have tried to demonstrate that I am the person you need to do the job."
To learn what challenges the city faces, Hicken said he had been attending City Council meetings for the past three months.
"One of the things I feel the cities around Utah County lack are relationships with cops," said Councilwoman Mia B. Love during the interview, noting children see police "as the person who gives mommy a ticket."
"We've lost personal experience with police officers so children feel safe," she said. "It is important to me to actually have people we know and can trust and will know what is going on."
Hicken said that because of the size of the city, he would hire officers that are "generalists, not specialists" who can deal with a range of problems, from detective work and domestic disputes to animal control and traffic violations.
Traffic flow, thefts from garages and family disputes are the top priorities of residents he has spoken to, Hicken said.
"Some officers would hate working here because it is too quiet and there are not enough robbers, rapers and thieves to put away," he said. "In California, the most we did was stop things from getting worse. You are in the envious position of not having to put a cap on something. You don't want it to start."
"It is really important that on a limited budget, which you know we have, the residents know and feel the police presence in the city," said Councilman Scott Kahn.
Hicken said that if he opens the city's new police department "and that doesn't happen, then the citizens will feel let down, and if they feel an increase in police presence, they will be happy, and I understand that is a serious objective."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.