TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — Taylorsville has decided to leave the Unified Police Department and go back to having its own police agency.
The city will send a letter to the UPD governing board on June 30.
Taylorsville Mayor Kristie Overson is a member of the UPD governing board and chair of the budget and finance committee.
She says the people who are part of Unified Police and the concept behind it are very sound, but she says the cost for cities to belong is expected to increase next year and beyond.
So she and the city council agreed that now is the right time to go their own way.
“So looking at those numbers it’s easy to think that if it’s going to be increased that much, why don’t we bring it in-house," Mayor Overson said. "And we have control over the dollars and the amount of police on the street, we have control over policy and procedure, so really it brings it back to our community.”
Taylorsville has about 60,000 residents with minority populations consisting of Latino, African-American, Polynesian and Asian communities.
Mayor Overson says over the next year the city will be hiring new officers and a new police chief with an emphasis on trying to find minority candidates.
The cityjoined the UPD in July of 2012.
Before being elected as Salt Lake County Sheriff, Rosie Rivera, spent several years on the Taylorsville police force.
You can read the full letter here.
