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PDF versionDuring the early 1990s the crime rate in Ogden as measured by the FBI was in the high 70s while the top cities in the state hovered around 100 (lower is better). Ogden hired a new police chief, Jon Greiner, who made some significant changes in the department, focusing on being proactive and getting ahead of crime.
In the past 10 years we have added 20 percent-plus more additional officers to our police department. We have also funded technology that gives our officers more crime-fighting tools. We have implemented innovative approaches like The Good Landlord Program and two years ago hired a "zero-tolerance" Crime Reduction Unit.
Ogden has also undertaken a major redevelopment program in downtown and in our neighborhoods. We have completed redevelopment on more than 70 acres and have about 140 acres under redevelopment right now. Additionally, we have transitioned many marginal neighborhoods into owner-occupied middle-income communities.
The results of these efforts have been impressive. Crime is down dramatically. Our crime rate is now 55, according to the latest statistics released by the FBI. The next closest city to Ogden in crime rate is Taylorsville. We are on track to have an even better year this coming year when next year's statistics are released.
Clearly we want this information out to let people know that Ogden is a different place than many imagine it to be. This last week one of the new stations did an article on the top malls for crime. They remarked that they were surprised that neither of the two Ogden malls was on the list at all. We're not surprised and we hope soon the state will recognize the remarkable improvements that have taken place in Ogden. Ogden is a safe town.
I think Ogden's story is important because it tells other communities that the right plan and implementation can change the paradigm. One of the reasons I ran for this office was because a former city official told me that "you can't do anything to change crime. It has always occurred and always will."
I'm surprised at how many people really believe that, especially when there have been remarkable changes in other high-profile cities like New York City. Crime will always exist in New York City as it will in Ogden, but we can significantly reduce crime. In fact we have done so.
There will be some that won't believe that Ogden is as good as I'm painting it to be. To them I ask that they come to Ogden and see for themselves. Walk our streets and experience the change. There is much more for us to do in Ogden, but we are encouraged by the progress.
Godfrey is the mayor of Ogden.
Timing is Everything
It's good that Godfrey did this crowing now, after waiting for all the drive-by murders from this summer to subside.
more Godfrey distortions
I agree with Flatlander's first point: Ogden's reputation as a dangerous place is unjustified. Has been for decades.
But Mayor Godfrey's real agenda here is to give himself and Mr. Greiner the credit for making Ogden safe. And the supposed evidence for that conclusion is badly distorted.
The reduction in the FBI-reported crime rate from "high 70s" to 55 sounds impressive. But crime rates have gradually decreased nationwide over the last couple of decades, and the long-term trend in Ogden is no better than the Utah average.
What about the "20 percent-plus more additional officers"? As reported on the FBI web site, Ogden had 120 officers in 1999 and 135 in 2008. That's only a 12.5% increase, probably just about enough to keep up with Ogden's population growth.
And as Flatlander says, calling the Ogden River Project and other abandoned downtown parcels "under development" is wishful thinking at best.
Here are some articles that analyze Ogden's long-term crime statistics:
http://wcforum.blogspot.com/search/label/Mono%27s%20Crime%20Analysis
Three Points
Three points:
1. The Mayor is right that downtown Ogden's reputation, which persists occasionally in blog comments and now and then in letter comments, as a crime-ridden dangerous place where it is foolhardy to take your family for a dinner out or a shopping stroll of a late afternoon or evening, is not justified. That, in fact, such assumptions about the safety of downtown Ogden's streets are largely nonsense.
2. That said, Hizzonah is guilty of guilding the lily when he writes "We have completed redevelopment on more than 70 acres and have about 140 acres under redevelopment right now" if that 140 acres includes the moribund River Project area and the burning and collapsing abandoned homes of Ogden's growing unofficial dump, Leshamville. That the Mayor would like that land to be "under development, " that he hopes that somehow the poor choices his administration made in selecting the developer to do the developing will be corrected, that he wishes it would actually be "under development" sometime this side of the American Revolution Tricentenial celebration, I can believe. But then, as the old folk adage goes, "If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride."
3. The SE has again given the Mayor space as a guest columnist to discuss his view of some significant public matters. Nothing wrong with that. Perfectly appropriate. However, I hope the SE has learned from the Mayor's past performances, which included in public comments significant dissembling and an unhappy lack of candor, not to take his public effusions at face value. I hope the SE has learned that when Mayor Godfrey speaks, fact-checking his statements is always a wise course for a newspaper to follow.
We shall see.