Getting to Know TVPD

| www.taylorsvilleut.gov City of Taylorsville Newsletter Patrol Unit Makes up the Bulk of TVPD

This marks the nal installment of our 'Getting to Know TVPD' series that has run for the past year. Check this space in the coming months for other police news and see past articles online.

TVPD consists of several di erent units that make up its in-house organizational structure. We have highlighted these units each month over the past year. Each unit has designated responsibilities with often one o cer covering multiple areas of responsibility. These areas include administration, internal investigations, records management, evidence, victim advocates, court liaisons, violent crimes, special victims, domestic violence, mental health, o ender registry management, property crimes, directed enforcement, community-oriented policing, homeless liaisons, school resource, street crimes, training, tra c and K-9.

We have saved our primary unit for last: TVPD’s Patrol Unit. This unit is supervised by Deputy Chief Gray under the direction of Chief Cottam. Our patrol unit makes up the bulk of TVPD, consisting of 35 o cers. Patrol o cers work staggered shifts to ensure Taylorsville City has 24/7 coverage 365 days a year. Shifts are staggered based on statistical data regarding calls for police service. This ensures we have the right number of o cers available during the right times.

Our patrol o cers are led by one of ve sergeants. Sgts. Bennett, Neal, Carver, Marriot and Smith each lead a group of patrol o cers assigned to them. Combined, these sergeants have more than 70 years of experience. Our patrol sergeants utilize their extensive training and experience to ensure we have a well-rounded department that can respond to any call for service.

Under the direction of a patrol sergeant, our patrol o cers are tasked with the initial response to any call for service — ranging from a simple citizen assist to a potentially very dynamic active violent crime in progress. Every day is unique, and every call is very di erent. An o cer may be called to help retrieve some chicklets from a storm drain one minute while the next they are attempting to stop an individual from taking theirs or another’s life. This may require that officers put themselves between a violent or distraught individual and an innocent life.

In all the scenarios, as you can imagine, a patrol o cer is asked to take control of whatever situation they come across with the goal of restoring and maintaining peace in our community, hence why o cers are often referred to as peace o cers. As highlighted in our past “About TVPD” articles, if a patrol o cer needs additional assistance in investigating and restoring peace to a situation, we have o cers with specialized training and experience who are available to help.

Each of our 35 o cers assigned to patrol have prior law enforcement experience with various agencies. This also helps to establish a well-rounded TVPD. To highlight each of these o cers would ll an entire Taylorsville journal for at least a year. We will continue to highlight our o cers’ and civilian employees’ accomplishments through social media: #TVPDUtah #TVPDCommunityPolicing #TVPDStopsCrime. Additionally, we will highlight our o cers and civilian employees as they continue to stand out as being “the best of the best” in our TVPD Employee of the Month section here. We appreciate the support of our community members and leaders. It is truly a pleasure to serve in such a great community!

Hosted by the Public Safety Committee Night Out Against Crime

Saturday, Aug. 6th 6 to 8 p.m.

Centennial Plaza

2600 W. Taylorsville Blvd.

Mountain Star AirLife helicopter Utah National Guard and their climbing wall Unified Fire Authority and their fire engines TVPD with some cool stuff U of U Health booth Bike Rodeo where children can ride a course

(BYOB – Bring Your Own Bikes)

TVPD Employee of the Month: Det. Andrew

Please join us in congratulating Det. Andrew who was recently awarded TVPD’s employee of the month. Det. Andrew has over nine years of experience in law enforcement. Prior to joining TVPD, he worked for Uni ed Police Department, Salt Lake City Airport Police and Logan Police Department. He has experience working in patrol, property crimes, directed enforcement and training. Throughout his career he has shown to be an exceptional natural leader who goes above and beyond the call of duty.

Det. Andrew’s responsibilities are vast. He is currently our lead firearms instructor. Upon TVPD’s formation he was tasked with developing and implementing a firearms training program. This included gathering the necessary training equipment which often led to Det. Andrew constructing his own training equipment speci c for our needs. He is also tasked with maintaining our rearms and related equipment.

In addition, as a detective in our Directed Enforcement Unit, he is tasked with managing an investigative queue, working with those challenged with homelessness, serving as a law enforcement business and apartment management liaison, regularly assisting patrol, assisting code enforcement and other investigative units and visiting schools as a resource o cer. He interacts with community leaders in helping to serve as a liaison between community programs and the police department.

Over the past year, Det. Andrew has consistently delivered in every aspect of his responsibilities. He is described as an officer who simply cares about people, our community and the o cers he works alongside. Now that TVPD is o cially a year old, it is only fair we recognize one of our cornerstone o cers as our newest employee of the month. Thank you, Det. Andrew, for all your do for TVPD and for Team Taylorsville!