Police crack down on Salt Lake homeless hotspots

Jan 30, 2025, 12:30 PM | Updated: 12:38 pm

SALT LAKE CITY — The community is getting its first look at what Salt Lake City is doing to fulfill Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s plan to fix the city’s homeless problem. Salt Lake City police were out Thursday morning stepping up patrols in city hot spots like the Jordan River trail.

KSL TV cameras were there as officers cracked down on a small encampment along the Jordan River trail near the Fairpark neighborhood.

Police are on day two of a three-day operation with city bike squads and other units to clean up some of these areas. Thursday, they cleared out several homeless men camping along the trail and connected them with available shelters and services.

So far, on Thursday, police had made four arrests. However, on Wednesday, officers made seven arrests and confiscated 600 fentanyl pills. It’s how they’re trying to fulfill Mayor Mendenhall’s promise to make these areas cleaner and safer.

“We recognize this is a citywide effort and it’s going to take a citywide approach to addressing these issues,” said Brent Weisberg, Salt Lake City Police Department spokesperson.

Thursday’s operation is just part of the 27 actions the mayor plans to take to fix its part of Utah’s homeless crisis. The plan also includes increasing police presence in crime hot spots, doing more patrols at park closing times, getting rid of trash and bio waste and creating more shelter space for homeless people to go.

Police will wrap their clean-up operation on Friday, and said they plan to keep doing more as needed.

KSL 5 TV Live

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Police crack down on Salt Lake homeless hotspots