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GLENDALE — Come Tuesday morning, 19,000 students in the Salt Lake City School District will return to school, occupying streets, sidewalks and buses on their way to learn.
With this in mind, the Salt Lake City Police Department on Monday announced it would be ramping up patrol efforts around two particular schools — Mountain View Elementary and Nibley Park Elementary — for this year's rendition of the Safe Passage Initiative.
"As a mom of three kids ... getting our kids to and from school safely is of the utmost and heartfelt importance to me as a mayor because first, I'm a mom," Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said.
She added the increased police presence near the schools is not an indication of escalating crime in the respective neighborhoods, stating that crime is down 13% citywide in Salt Lake City, but the initiative selects a couple of neighborhoods in the district prior to school resuming each August.
"We, as police officers, have a critical responsibility to help ensure the safe passage of children as they head back to school," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown. "A safe walk to school is not a privilege, it's a right. My commitment to you today is that all of our officers will be on a heightened alert. We'll be looking for people who endanger the lives of road users and in particular, our children."
While Mountain View Elementary and Nibley Park Elementary are the focus of this year's initiative, Brown said officers will be patrolling other school zones across the city.
The initiative was brought back in 2022, with increased patrol efforts around Backman Elementary School, Mary W. Jackson Elementary School and the Horizonte Instruction and Training Center. In 2023, the city and department again focused on Backman Elementary School and Mary W. Jackson Elementary School.
"This is our city and our community and our district and these are our children," Salt Lake School District Superintendent Elizabeth Grant said. "This is just the most important thing we can do to be cautious as we're driving, as we're making turns (and) as we're heading to our work and to our events in the city."
Jason Finch, Mountain View Elementary School principal, said the school has more than 1,300 students.
"We're very excited for our officers to have a presence here to help our children get here safe, because that is very important," Finch said. "We need them here so they can learn. We need them here to feel safe. It's a team effort, just like everything we do, it takes a village. It takes coordination between the schools, my teachers, the mayor's office and of course, our officers here, to make sure that we get here safe."
