CEDAR CITY, Utah -- After months of conversations and receiving feedback from community members, Southern Utah University will not move forward with a change of police on the campus this year.
FOX 13 spoke with both Cedar City Police and SUU President Scott Wyatt in mid-July about previous and future conversations being held about bringing in the Cedar City Police Department to handle policing on campus.
“Why would two government agencies in such a small space have duplicate of services when we could actually team up together and make it stronger?” said Wyatt on July 13. Days later, a campus forum was held where Wyatt answered questions from the public about the future of police.
In a campus-wide email earlier this week, Wyatt thanked all of those willing to share feedback as well as announcing that the SUU Police Department will stay put:
“Over the past several months, I have been exploring the possibility of combining our resources with the Cedar City Police Department. After reviewing the input from many students, faculty, staff and community members and in speaking further about this possibility with the City, I have made the decision not to pursue an agreement with Cedar City and maintain our independent campus police department.
"I am grateful for the feedback I received from many of you and express my appreciation to Cedar City officials for their willingness to discuss this idea, as well as our SUU Police Department for their diligence and professionalism.
"Student safety and the security of our campus is, and always has been, the top priority. I am confident in our SUU Police Department and know they share that priority. Likewise, SUU’s strong relationship with Cedar City continues.” – SUU President Scott Wyatt via email on July 30, 2020.
