West Valley police stay tough on crime as city calls for independent review


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WEST VALLEY CITY — West Valley police want to send a message to potential drug dealers and users: it's not open season in their city.

"Law enforcement has not been suspended. The West Valley Police Department is very actively engaged in the purpose we were established, to serve and protect the community," said Deputy Chief Mike Powell. "We're dealing with a set of circumstances. Some concerns have come up and we're dealing with those concerns. It doesn't affect all activities.

"Does that mean drug enforcement is not taking place? No, not at all."

Powell's comments come as the department announced late Wednesday that seven additional officers who had worked as part of the Neighborhood Narcotics Unit — two supervisors and five detectives — have been placed on leave pending the outcome of several investigations into the now-disbanded unit. That brings the total number of officers on leave from the narcotics unit to nine.

But Powell said it is important for both the public and criminals to know that just because the unit had been suspended and several areas of concern about the embattled department are being investigated both internally and by outside agencies including the FBI, that does not mean drug dealers will be getting a free pass in the city while those investigations are ongoing.

Areas of concern within WVCPD:
Narcotics officers from the West Valley Police Department stole money and other items from vehicles they seized and may have taken drugs and money confiscated during arrests, an internal audit found.

The audit identified six areas of concern within the department:

  • Improper evidence handling
  • Missing cash and drugs from criminal cases
  • Detectives "improperly taking small amounts of money and items from seized vehicles"
  • Officers collecting "trophies, trinkets or souvenirs" from narcotics cases
  • Improper use of confidential informants
  • Improper use of GPS trackers in violation of law and internal procedures

Also Thursday, city leaders unveiled a plan for an independent review panel to look into the 88 criminal cases dismissed by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office in recent weeks. All are linked to the police departments embattled narcotics unit.

City manager Wayne Pyle said he is bringing in some independent attorneys and legal experts to see exactly what the now-suspended officers did wrong in those cases.

"We're not making any assumptions about anyone's guilt or what kind of discipline would happen or whatever," West Valley City Manager Wayne Pyle said. "We're simply saying OK, this is part of the ongoing investigation. It appears we're — at this point we've got the FBI involved, we've still got the DA's office looking into the investigation — it appears it was the prudent thing to do at this point."

He wants independent attorneys and legal experts to look over the dismissed cases for two reasons: one, to determine what evidence was mishandled by narcotics officers; and two, to see if any cases are able to be salvaged — there is a chance the district attorney's office could reopen some of the dismissed cases.

"We could still have criminal charges that arise out of this," Pyle said, "but I believe ... this is more of a situation of rushed (work) and some sloppiness and carelessness that simply wasn't taken care of."

Pyle said the review panel will start their work as soon as possible and will be asked to make recommendations to the city about future personnel decisions regarding the suspended officers.

Lt. John Coyle, Sgt. Michael Johnson, and detectives Ricardo Franco, Sean McCarthy, Rafael Frausto, Chris Smith and Barbara Lund are the additional officers placed on leave. Detectives Shaun Cowley and Kevin Salmon have been on paid leave since November following the fatal officer-involved shooting of 21-year-old Danielle Willard during an undercover drug investigation conducted by Cowley and Salmon.

It was because of items of evidence found in Cowley's trunk that did not involve the Willard case that prompted West Valley police to shut down the narcotics unit in December.

In the weeks and months that followed, the internal investigation expanded to include separate investigations by the Salt Lake City Police Department, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office and the FBI.

West Valley officials announced last week that an internal investigation had uncovered several disturbing "areas of potential problems" within the narcotics unit. The problems included undisclosed amounts of missing drugs and money, small amounts of cash and other items taken from the seized vehicles of drug suspects, officers taking "trophies, trinkets or souvenirs" from drug-related crime scenes, and officers using GPS trackers without first securing a warrant.

Powell said placing the additional officers on paid leave was part of the standard ongoing process for internal investigations. He called it "not out of the ordinary" and said the public should not try reading anything extra into the paid leaves.

He admitted, however, that being down nine officers does create some challenges for the department. But other officers have been reassigned to different duties for emergency responses, and the department has "taken whatever measures are necessary" to ensure that all priority calls are responded to as quickly as before.

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Pat Reavy and Andrew Wittenberg

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