2 Utah Police Departments Merge to Address Staffing Shortages
Source Officer.com News
What to know
- The Mount Pleasant and Fairview police forces are merging to form the North Valley Police Department because of staffing shortages.
- The merger, effective July 1, ensures 24-hour law enforcement coverage in both cities with at least one officer on call.
- Steve Gray, Mount Pleasant's police chief, was sworn in as the new department's chief, and Logan Ludvigson was hired as deputy chief.
Two Utah police departments are merging in order to address staffing issues that affected the individual agencies.
The Mount Pleasant and Fairview police forces will now become the North Valley Police Department, the former agency stated in a social media post. Injuries to officers in both departments recently brought agency staffing shortages to the forefront and prompted the move.
"We really both work together very well so we made a verbal agreement to assist each other through our hard times," the post stated. "This worked so well that both cities started talks to merge both police departments into one."
The new North Valley police force will officially begin operation July 1, but officers have been deployed to both cities under the new arrangement. The merger means both cities will have 24-hour law enforcement coverage with at least one officer on call, something that the individual department's couldn't achieve because of a lack of personnel.
Steve Gray, Mount Pleasant's police chief, will now lead the new department, and he was sworn in Friday. Logan Ludvigson also was hired and sworn in as deputy chief.
"(I'm) excited to move forward with the new department," Gray stated in the department's social media post.
