The Salt Lake City Council deserves credit for a job well done this past year. Specifically, its forward-looking focus regarding police and affordable housing will help usher Salt Lake into a new year of measured growth and public safety. With the growth in the homeless population and the scattering caused by Operation Rio Grande, the council’s consistently steady response deserves credit.
At a recent meeting, the council took an administrative request for 27 new police and instead doubled the number to 50. Operation Rio Grande is driving the need, as well as an influx of daytime city workers and a return to a neighborhood policing model.