Salt Lake City Council wants more west-side parks security

More security could be coming to west-side parks as weather warms and residents spend more time outside.

The Salt Lake City Council is considering expanding a private security guard service from three east-side parks to five west-side ones: Riverside Park, Cottonwood Park, the International Peace Gardens, Jordan Park and Glendale.

The move would be temporary, however, and cost about $59,000. When asked if city staffers should try to include the program in next year’s annual budget, council members responded with a resounding “yes!”

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Police in Cottonwood Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.

Some members, including west-side representative Victoria Petro, questioned if the private security would be effective, how the city could make a bigger effort in that part of the city and if the guards would be too similar to the city’s park rangers.

“I don’t want any more piecemeal-ing for the west side,” Petro said at an April 1 council meeting. “I think the city public safety plan has a chance at really remarkable execution, and I’m still paying for park rangers. So, theoretically, the concept of the security is very important to me and something I’m interested in. I’m not interested in piecemeal-ing the solutions anymore.”

Concerns about public safety along the west side’s Jordan River corridor of green spaces have long dominated public discussions.

Just last week, the city closed a portion of the Jordan River Trail near Rose Park’s Backman Elementary School, the second such closure of the multiuse path in the past year, as city officials seek to prevent police enforcement efforts in targeted neighborhoods from simply shifting drug activity to other areas.

Council members have tried to direct more policing resources to the riverbanks, too. Last November, the council sped up hiring for new officers, so the Salt Lake City Police Department could get two new squads onto the trail.

The proposal to add security guards to the five parks is relatively narrow. The guards would patrol only green spaces and portions of the trail between them from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Their primary focus would be on keeping people out of the parks after dark.

The security company would provide daily and weekly reports to City Hall about what the guards are finding.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Cottonwood Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.

City Chief Administrative Officer Jill Remington Love said that the park rangers weren’t trained to provide that type of security.

The Police Department is also working on setting up a combined camera and dispatch system that could aid officers and guards on patrol.

The City Council is considering other plans to boost public safety as a part of its budget adjustment process, too. To the tune of $320,000, officials want to expand the city’s ability to clear unsanctioned homeless camps seven days a week through a contract with Advantage Services, even though some of those living rough come back to the same place a day later.

“There’s a sense of urgency about this and that’s why the administration is bringing it up right now,” west-side council member Alejandro Puy said at an April 8 meeting. “I am appreciative of that and I hope that we keep it moving with that speediness to get the resources that we need to answer this problem in our community.”

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Cottonwood Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.

Government officials say the periodic cleanups help keep the river healthy. Workers also try to connect people living in the camps to services.

Council members are also reviewing a $700,000 million request to continue 24/7 private security patrols in the city’s so-called Civic Campus, the stretch of downtown containing City Hall, the Main Library and the Public Safety Building.

If the council makes the budget adjustments as proposed, it would also direct $3.5 million to the replacement of the deteriorating 400 South bridge over the Jordan River and $135,000 to keep up with demand for the city’s discounted HIVE public transit pass.

The council plans to discuss the budget tweaks again at its meeting Tuesday.