Crime is up, patrols are down in SLC Ballpark neighborhood

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (ABC4 News) – Among Salt Lake City’s seven districts, violent crime is up the highest in the Ballpark District (5).

At 62.6% year-to-date, that’s more than districts one through four combined.

“I just want to say to everybody in the Ballpark Community it breaks my heart that some of these crime stats are up,” said Police Chief Mike Brown back in September.

At that time, it was during a Ballpark Community Council meeting held after a homicide on Harrison Avenue in August.

In the wake of it, Brown said his department was working on stepping up patrols in the area.

“The last time I met with Chief Brown was in October,” says Amy J. Hawkins, Chair of the Ballpark Community Council. “I was really disappointed at that time to learn he had great intentions, but those patrols were overtime patrols, and they were largely unfilled.”

Salt Lake City Police tells ABC4, “We have seen an increase in crime citywide in 2020. This has led us to constantly look for ways to address this throughout the city. Changes are constantly being made to staffing, as well as the way the units we have in different assignments are deployed.”

The uptick in crime is leaving Ballpark residents uneasy. Shelley Bodily, a mother of three, was sleeping when she heard shots ring out in the community’s latest homicide.

It was around midnight Monday in the 1500 South Main Street. Police are still searching for the suspect.

“I woke up to four shots being fired,” she says. “I stopped and thought are those gunshots or fireworks?”

Bodily has lived in the Ballpark neighborhood for about 20 years. She’s now considering moving.

“In the past year, year and a half, the violence has just escalated,” she says.

“We’ve kind of taken the stand where we’re going to see what happens over the next short term with the pandemic, and hopefully things will calm down. But, you have to do what you have to do for your family.”