The mission of the Kaysville Police Department is to protect the lives, property, and rights of all people through prevention, professionalism, and partnership with the community, as guided by the Constitution of this great state and country. They aim to enforce the law impartially with a reverence for human life and to provide service with compassion, integrity, and honor. Chief Solomon Oberg gave the Kaysville City Council the 2023 Annual Report at a recent council meeting.

Kaysville City Police responded to 11,944 calls for service in 2023. The Top 10 calls for service (from most to least) include: Traffic Enforcement, Citizen Assist, Extra Patrol, Suspicious Circumstance, Medical Assist, Agency Assist, Traffic Accident, Juvenile Problem, Residential/Business Alarm, and 911 hang-ups. In 2023, 301 adults and 30 juveniles were arrested in comparison to 303 adults and 67 juveniles in 2022. Traffic stops and citations both saw an increase, as did traffic accidents. 

Utah law requires every police officer to complete 40 hours of training per year to maintain their peace officer certification. In 2023, officers completed 21 different types of training classes, including active shooter response, autism for law enforcement, child abduction response and exploitation, De-Escalation and Minimizing Use of Force, etc.

Notable events for the year include Oberg being awarded 2022 Chief of the Year by the Utah Chiefs of Police Association in March 2023; Kaysville being ranked as the second safest city for the second year in a row; and accomplishing consolidated dispatch service so that Kaysville is the same as every other law enforcement agency in Davis County. “This project has been in the works for a couple of years and should provide interoperability and the ability to see crime and other reports from all agencies that they previously have not had,” Oberg said.

The workload for the officers as well as the front office staff continues to grow. Oberg discussed the difficulties in accomplishing the same tasks due to volume. He said the front office staff had recently turned over because those positions were overworked and burned out. He said soon, he will have to address this staffing issue. In the meantime, starting over has provided the opportunity to try to find efficiencies that can be made within the workload and to take a fresh look at duties. For instance, the department provides a disposal bin for the public to safely and confidentially dispose of their unwanted or expired medication. In 2023, they destroyed 207.20 pounds of prescription drugs that were received in the pharmaceutical disposal bin. Oberg said the department will not be accepting these drugs for the near future until front office changes can be made (Davis Behavioral Mental Health is the closest alternative location and staff also has a list of drop-off alternatives). He said the DARE Program has also been paused due to workforce and resources needing to be evaluated. 

Oberg discussed the FBI National Academy Program he attended for 10 weeks this year to bring police departments across the country together to share resources and become more efficient. It is a leadership, communication/networking and fitness training program held at Quantico and is funded through their budget. He discussed the benefits of having a huge resource of people to call and share solutions and policies, as well as grant information. A total of 54,565 graduates have completed the National Academy since its inception in 1935.

To maintain grant funding, Victim Services Coordinator Jennifer Winchester and Walter the therapy dog briefed the Council on multiple grant programs. She discussed specific instances or situations with successful outcomes and talked about navigating the justice system with and without victim advocates to paint a picture of the benefits.

Oberg highlighted numerous awards and recognitions within the department and complimented his staff and expertise within. The Mayor and City Council thanked Oberg and the entire department for their service.