'Operation Diversion': Separating 'wolves' from vulnerable in Rio Grande


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SALT LAKE CITY — Twenty-four hours earlier, it was business as usual in Salt Lake City's Rio Grande District.

Troves of people packed the median at 500 West — tarps pitched as tents on trampled, now muddied grass. Piles of suitcases, bikes, tattered blankets. Human waste in the gutters, flies in the air.

The street bustled with activity, with people pushing shopping carts filled with their belongings to and from the nearby homeless shelter. It's difficult to distinguish the homeless from criminals, but the presence of drugs — spice, marijuana, meth and heroin — is unmistakable.

Among them, a woman sat in the mud. Her eyes were closed, and her head hung back, her mouth gaping open. Nearby, a man sat with his back up against a chain-link fence, swaying back and forth.

But early Thursday, there was a stark change of pace from officers' usual patrols.

In what state, county and city officials are pegging as an unprecedented operation," about 100 police officers invaded the Rio Grande neighborhood beginning at 7 a.m. in an effort to target drug dealing and other crimes.

To Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder and Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown, it was not a crackdown on crime — something that's been done time and time again in the city's downtown district.

"This," Winder said, "is a smarter approach."

It was "Operation Diversion," a coordinated effort between the county, city and drug treatment providers to strategically attack the drug market that has permeated the homeless population spilling out of downtown shelters.

"We have wolves amongst the most vulnerable in this state," House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said while standing alongside Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams and top law enforcement leaders.

"When you see multiple jurisdictions coming together to take care of a problem, we should be proud of that," Hughes said.

As of Thursday evening, 49 arrests were made for crimes ranging from public intoxication to dealing heroin, or for outstanding warrants — but the offenders weren't sent to jail. Instead, they were taken to a receiving center in the old Barnes Bank building near the Salt Lake City Public Safety Building.

There, public defenders, criminal justice officials and social workers waited at the ready. Each person underwent an assessment — and many were given a choice: Accept immediate treatment or go to jail. Those suspected of serious crimes went straight to a cell.

Ongoing effort

"This is not a traditional sweep of the neighborhood, which has been tried before," Mayor Biskupski at a news conference Thursday at Salt Lake police headquarters. "This is a collaborative and targeted action with jail and behavioral health efforts to back it up. And it will not be a one-time effort."

The county has pumped $1.2 million and the city $150,000 into funding drug treatment for about 150 people for six months and at least 18 months of criminal prosecutions.

Winder said Operation Diversion will happen on several occasions over the next few weeks, but he wouldn't disclose when to preserve an element of surprise.

As part of the operation, 10 detox beds and 52 residential and treatment beds were ready to take patients — 30 at the Odyssey House, 20 at the First Step House, 10 at Volunteers of America, and two at House of Hope.

The aim, Winder said, is to tackle the "crisis" of crime and drug dealing hiding within and preying upon downtown's most vulnerable — but also learn more about the those who linger and live in the Rio Grande neighborhood.

"This is an absolute, incredible opportunity to do the modeling we think is going to work on a small scale," the sheriff said.

"Are we experimenting with people's lives? Hell yeah we are," Winder said, adding that he's confident the result will be more succesful than past Rio Grande crackdowns.

Biskupski said planning for the operation has been going on since June. Over the course of the operation, law enforcement officials and service providers will be tracking the progress of patients to see if the method works, she said.

If the operation is deemed a success by keeping those 150 people out of what McAdams has called the "revolving door" of criminal justice — people being released from jail and rearrested for similar offenses because they're not getting the treatment they need — the city and the county will seek more funding from the Utah Legislature to continue the program.

"This action today is the first time we've been able to comprehensively include jail diversion treatment as an alternative to jail," he said.

A 'palpable' improvement

While Operation Diversion will have an immediate impact by eventually taking 150 offenders off Rio Grande streets over the next six months, it likely won't have an immediate, visual effect in a neighborhood still flooded with thousands of homeless and drug-addicted people, and the criminals who hide among them, McAdams said.

It will take years of effort, Winder said, to bring the drugs and crime under control in the neighborhood.

But Matthew Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home shelter, said there was an unusual calmness in the Rio Grande neighborhood following Thursday's operation, though it remains to be seen how long it will last.

"It's not as though the street is uninhabited," Minkevitch said. "In fact, it's not. But it's certainly improved. It is palpably improved over what has become too commonly the occurrence along the corridor — disorganization, the chaos, the desperation, the predatory criminal behavior."

Minkevitch said he drove onto 500 West to study the area after Thursday's excitement.

"This activity won’t mean the shelter will be empty tonight, and I think people understand that as well," he said. "But this collaborative effort to both root those who have preying upon people in the throes of addiction and also provide an opportunity for people to get into treatment is a kind of approach that a thoughtful community working together can take."

Past crackdowns

Efforts to clean up the area around the homeless shelter and Pioneer Park are nothing new. A Deseret News editorial in 2015 commenting on a "crackdown" on crime in the Rio Grande District even mused whether it was a "been there, done that" effort.

In 2014, Salt Lake police created a Metro Support Bureau to concentrate on crime and community policing in the area from North Temple to 700 South, and I-15 to State Street.

In 2009, the police department announced the installation of four surveillance cameras around Pioneer Park in an effort to deter drug activity.

And in 2007, Salt Lake police teamed up with federal immigration and state corrections officials for six days for an intense cleanup effort around the Pioneer Park area. The result was 658 people arrested in the area, with 87 for investigation of drug distribution and 165 for investigation of people trying to buy drugs.

But this effort, Biskupski said, is "unprecedented" because the city and county have planned for months to have long-term beds set aside and ready for the individuals being plucked from the streets — with jail cells waiting for those who deserve to be arrested, and long-term beds available for those who need treatment.

"Now, people have a real opportunity to get well, to get help," she said. "And they can make that choice today."

Contributing: Pat Reavy, Marjorie Cortez

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