Heber City Police Sgt. Josh Weishar said as the community grows, the department has worked to step up its hiring to ensure the same level of service for residents.
“Just having police officers and cars out and about helps a lot,” he said. “But when we have such a big community, as it develops, we have to grow with it.”
Weishar said there are challenges that go along with Heber’s rapid growth. It’s become more expensive to live in Wasatch County, and that means more officers in the department live outside the community.
“Up until maybe four years or so ago, we were able to limit our hiring to Wasatch County, maybe some of Summit County, and you’d have to live within those boundaries,” he said. “But because the cost of living has gone up, and the cost of housing and rent has gone up so high, we’ve had to widen our hiring. And I would say more than half of our department now is outside of Wasatch County.”
He said that can make retention more challenging.
Still, Weishar said the police department is ready to meet the needs of the community. That includes exploring new training and tools for officers to use and sponsoring a new officer’s training at the Utah police academy.
Weishar said part of the training is understanding what kinds of force police might inflict on suspects. He said most officers in the Heber City Police Department have been tased as part of their preparation – himself included.
“It’s five seconds of electricity running through your body, but it feels like 30 to 40 minutes of electricity going through your body,” he said. “Oh, it’s a horrible feeling, for sure.”
He said that experience helps officers be better prepared for when they might need to use a Taser in the field – or a situation where someone could turn those tools on police.
The department is also applying to have a K-9 program for the first time.
“We have one K-9 through the county, but Heber City wants to get one of our K-9s as well,” Weishar said. “We’ll work on getting K-9 so that we can better keep officer safety and use that for community policing, as well as apprehension and drug and alcohol prevention – stuff like that.”
He said the department is also considering purchasing an armored SWAT vehicle for use in potentially dangerous situations.
To learn more about the Heber City Police Department, visit the city website.
