OGDEN — A law enforcement task force is finding success in taking a bite out violent crime downtown, Police Chief Jon Greiner said Tuesday night.
During a work session, Greiner provided the city council with an update on the progress of the police department’s seven-member Crime Reduction Squad.
The squad was established in 2007 to tackle serious offenses, including homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary and prostitution in a high-crime area that extends from 20th Street to 30th Street between Washington and Harrison boulevards.
The squad’s efforts resulted in a 23 percent drop in crime within that area in 2008 compared with 2007 and is on target for an additional
3 percent decrease in offenses by the end of the year, Greiner said.
City Council Chairwoman Amy Wicks said the Crime Reduction Squad has been very visible in the downtown area.
The squad has been successful because of its concentration on keeping in contact with a large number of prison parolees who live in homes that have been carved up into single-family apartments in the downtown area, Greiner said.
The squad has made more than 1,900 parolee checks since its inception.
Many of the crimes that occur downtown are committed by parolees who reoffend, Greiner said.
As many as 3,000 parolees are in the Ogden area, he said.
“It’s not fair to the citizens of this community,†Greiner said of the inordinate amount of parolees in the city.
“It’s not fair to have to police them.â€
Parolees often settle in Ogden after being discharged from a 160-bed state-operated halfway house in West Ogden, Greiner said.
He said the halfway house is the largest of four such facilities in the state, with the other three being in Salt Lake City.
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