Hildale's entire police force is suspended
 Force fails to meet training requirement
 
By Jane Zhang
The Spectrum
 
ST. GEORGE -- Failing to fulfill a 40-hour annual training requirement mandated by Utah state law, Hildale's entire police force has been suspended for six weeks, state and county officials confirmed Monday.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, the five officers, who had worked under an inter-city agreement for the police departments in the border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., have lost their policing powers in Utah, including searching, interrogating and making police arrests.

"Most of them appear to have low numbers of hours needed," said Sid Groll, director of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) at the Utah Department of Public Safety. "They will have no authority until their hours are made up."

Utah law requires that police officers fulfill at least 40 hours of in-service training to keep their POST certificate. Groll didn't release the exact number of hours the Hildale officers are still lacking, but he said Police Chief Sam Roundy is "a few hours short." The officers, however, still have their Arizona POST certificate, which requires eight hours of training every year.

Most of Hildale and Colorado City's residents belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, one of the fastest-growing polygamist groups in North America. Among the 2,000 residents in Hildale and 4,000 in Colorado City, a significant number of families inter marry. In addition to the police force, the two towns also have joint agreements in other municipal areas.

Since Hildale's police force lost its power, said Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith, his officers have been on standby. He said he was surprised to learn that all the police officers are suspended.

"It's not unusual to have officers that don't turn their reports and hours in on time," Smith said. "That happens periodically. For the entire police department -- that is unusual."

Roundy didn't return The Spectrum's phone call Monday. But Dan Barlow, Colorado City mayor and unofficial spokesman for the FLDS church, insisted that only "a couple" of the five active officers needed extra hours and "Sam is OK."

"(It) won't have any impact at all," he said. "It's nothing serious. It's no crisis."

Groll, who wrote a letter to the police force a month ago, said he had never seen an entire police force fail to fulfill the POST requirement. He said Roundy went to Salt Lake City a week ago to meet him. If Roundy reports that his officers have reached 40 hours, they will be reactivated.

"It's really not a great crisis," Groll said. "If they put their hours in, it won't be a problem. If they perform the duty without authority, then it could be a problem."

With Hildale about an hour away from St. George, Smith said he's considering establishing a substation in the Apple Valley and Hildale area, which has bustled in recent years with new homes. He said he has thought about the idea for years, but the lack of active police officers in Hildale has prompted him to look at the option more in the past three weeks.

"We are a long way to putting an officer there," Smith said, mentioning costs in rent and utilities if an office is opened there. "You just don't grab an officer and put it there."

The sheriff's office has 35 patrol officers, who are reminded every year by his assistant about the annual POST requirements, Smith said. Two officers at the Washington County Jail lacked hours, and they were soon notified.

For the most part, he said, Hildale's police officers worked professionally. A former sworn officer, Rodney Holm, is on trial this week in St. George on charges of bigamy and unlawful sexual activity.

While anti-polygamy activists have complained about the lack of prosecution on welfare and child abuses in Hildale, Smith said he won't budge if he obtains evidence. But the lack of witnesses and a paper trail has made prosecution hard.

"Violation of the law is violation of the law," he said. "We as police officers are neutral gatherers of facts."

The Utah Attorney General's Office has called a summit on polygamy on Aug. 21 in St. George, said Paul Murphy, spokesman for Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Participants will include law enforcement agencies and women and children's services
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published August 12, 2003
 
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