Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Policing the homeless is never an easy job.
Officers are often left to clean up after the crimes when mental health struggles and addictions to alcohol and drugs lead to bad and unpredictable behavior.
"You really never know what's going to happen in the city here, but that's what makes it fun," said Salt Lake City police officer Gabe McQueen as he drove through downtown with a KSL-TV crew Wednesday.
McQueen, who joined the department two and a half years ago with experience in mental health outreach and crisis management, said he welcomed the faster pace out on the streets.
"I really loved the aspect of just getting people at the worst time of their lives and helping them get back up on their feet," he said.
That said, there hasn't been much in his time as an officer that has truly surprised him — except what happened on March 23, which was caught on body camera.
McQueen said he encountered a woman out on the streets whom he recognized from a prior response to a drug problem call about a month earlier.
"She just so happened to be somebody who stuck out to me," McQueen said.
The officer said the woman in that first encounter outlined her struggles with addiction and homelessness that had led to her losing custody of her daughter.
"We had a very in-depth conversation about how becoming sober and maintaining that sobriety can help her become a mother again," McQueen said.
It appeared that the conversation, in which McQueen connected the woman with potential resources, helped by the time he ran into her the second time.
In the recorded conversation, she told McQueen she was moving out of state for treatment.
"This place has a $12,000 grant for people that want to get sober," she raved. "They help you get a house, a car."
The woman acknowledged in the conversation it was the right way for her to go.
"If I don't, I don't know if I'm going to get out of this," she acknowledged.
Once the officer learned of the progress the woman had made, he encouraged her and gave her a high five.
"Seriously, keep it up — it's just one step at a time," McQueen said during the interaction. "I'm so freaking proud of you."
McQueen acknowledged Wednesday he couldn't have been more surprised and pleased.
"It's pretty rare that we run into that, where people use the resources that we have," McQueen said. "I just wish her the best of luck and that she can continue on her journey to sobriety and hopefully she can continue to build that relationship again."
He hoped his experience dealing with people facing adverse circumstances would help him to have more success stories on the streets in the future.
"Having that background gives me the ability to have compassion and try to relate and have a better understanding of where these people are at, but also what kind of put them there in the first place, to try to get to the root cause of their unfortunate situation," McQueen said.
