OGDEN, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Ogden officials are in the preliminary stages of creating a new way of crime fighting that involves the citizens. The program is hands-on and in-depth when it comes to community policing and citizen involvement. Ogden officials believe this could be a model for other cities and states if it's a success.
Mayor Matthew Godfrey says, “The idea would be to have far more sting operations going on throughout the town.” But sting operations are time consuming and the police department alone doesn't have enough manpower. This is where citizen volunteers come in. With proper training they would help put the operations on, monitor them, then call police when they see an offender. The whole purpose is to get a step ahead of the crime. Godfrey says, “When we can catch someone who's committing a car burglary on the first or second try we're going to save dozens of other victims.”
Godfrey assures us that citizens in this program will be safe and highly trained on how to keep themselves out of danger. Ogden residents we talked to say they believe this program could be a success. Neil Marsee says, “If they do it right it could be a good idea. Good involvement getting people to feel like they're part of what's happening in Ogden to improve it.” Stewart Kelly says, “It should be a perfect idea really, once you get the citizens out there, gets them seeing what's going on out there then the criminal element can't hide in the shadows anymore.”
Godfrey says crime in Ogden has gone down 30 percent over the past ten years and says there's no reason why it can't continue to decline. He says, “I think this is pushing the envelope a little bit and I expect over time we'll see other cities implementing similar techniques and using volunteers in this way if we're successful.”
The city will start recruiting volunteers the first of next year. They hope to start the program with just a few volunteers then expand to several dozen as the program takes off.
