Increasing police presence?

The combination of visitors to the Valley and contractors for the ongoing wind energy projects in northeastern Carbon County is, apparently, leading to extra work for the Saratoga Police Department according to Chief Ken Lehr.

Lehr informed the Saratoga Town Council about the increasing workload for his department during the May 4 meeting of the governing body following a request from Councilmember Ben Spaulding.

“Chief, I know you guys are getting taxed with a lot of stuff, especially with the hobo pools and everything like that, but I was approached by a concerned citizen up by the stone gates,” said Spaulding. “There’s a lot of traffic that’s going up through there, especially with the side-by-sides and ATVs and even some of the out-of-staters driving extremely fast down those roads. They’re asking if we can have a little bit more control presence up there just to help slow that traffic down. There are a bunch of kids down on the side of the road and animals and stuff like that.”

The stone gates mentioned by Spaulding are found east of Saratoga and serve as the delineation between Pic Pike Road and Carbon County Road 504. With County Road 504 providing access to the Old Baldy Club, the Saratoga Transfer Station, the Saratoga Cemetery and a number of ranches and subdivisions, it is known to see a fair amount of traffic.

Additionally, Pic Pike Road runs alongside the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort and the Saratoga Inn Overlook subdivision.

Lehr, in response to Spaulding’s request, stated if an officer had time to patrol the Saratoga Inn Overlook area they would but they were spread thin. The police chief added he had worked 31 hours straight the week before due to his officers fielding other calls. He stated his department was unable to keep up with everything and more officers were needed.

Currently, the Saratoga Police Department has four police officers including Lehr himself. Joining Lehr in the department are Seargent Tyler Christen, Officer Kyle Murphy and Officer Robert Bifano. With one officer retiring, Lehr requested permission to hire a replacement, which was approved following an hour long executive session on May 4.

According to data provided by the Saratoga Police Department, between January 1 and May 10 of this year officers responded to 1,285 calls. Of those calls, the highest amount was for business checks with 349 in a five month period. 

In the same amount of time, the police department had 28 calls for bar checks, 19 calls for a suspicious person or circumstances, 12 calls for hot pool violations, 10 calls related to fraud, nine calls for domestic disturbance and four calls related to a wanted person.

Also within that same period, the Saratoga Police Department had 146 hot pool checks, 43 school checks, 44 traffic complaints and 42 traffic stops.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on March 18 at the Saratoga Town Hall.