He calls police usually two or three times a day. He chases off at least four people passed out on his lawn each morning. He finds about six needles left behind in the cracks of the sidewalk as he closes his front gate at night. These grim numbers are how Dru Steadman measures crime in his neighborhood on the west side of Salt Lake City. The resident and business owner attended the Wednesday unveiling of what he hopes might be the solution: a defunct fast food restaurant being converted into a pop-up patrol station.
It is opening, in part, because efforts last year that focused on the Rio Grande District a few blocks east have pushed some of those problems here. But this area, too, has in the past decade become its own hot spot of drug deals, prostitution and shootings. And now a fleet of six bike officers will be stationed in the epicenter to address it.
Police decals decorate the doors, which still have white papers taped to them, saying the restaurant has shut down. Inside, though, the colorful plastic booths and tables remain for officers to conduct interviews or hold briefings.
In its first 16 days โ the west side operation started quietly July 9 โ police made 47 felony arrests and put another individuals in jail, Brown said. Steadman opened his school lunch business, Legacy Sales and Marketing, in the neighborhood in ; he lives in the upstairs loft.
The initial results from the police substation give him hope that things will change. He and other business owners want to see the area revitalize. North Temple in after spending every weekend coming to the west side of town with their kids to eat, bowl and see movies.
