A day in the life with Officer Jessica Low: a Logan Police legacy
As the two tow trucks leave the location of the accident carrying the cars involved, and the debris is cleaned off the road, Officer Low gets out of her car and gathers up the cones she had been using to block the road and prevent cars from interfering with the aftermath of the accident located at 100 W. and Golf Course Road.
Jessica Low, or J-Low as her coworkers call her, is a patrol officer for the Logan City Police Department.
Low refers to herself as a “legacy hire” because her dad worked for the police department for 20 years. She said her dad, who currently works for dispatch along with her sister, is her biggest role model.
She started with Logan Police in 2020 working in parking enforcement and then worked in a secretary position at the front desk of the department.
In 2022, the department sponsored Low’s attendance at the Peace Officer Standards and Training Academy in Sandy to become a police officer. She finished the academy in May of that year and began working patrol shifts on her own after training in July.
Low originally wanted to go into nursing, but when she realized it wasn’t what she wanted to do anymore, her dad suggested she try working at the police department.
“I dipped my toes in the water, and I was like, ‘I love this,’” Low said.
Logan Police Capt. Shand Nazer, who serves as the patrol division commander, said when people think of the police, they likely envision the patrol division.
“It’s the uniform and the badge in a marked police car,” Nazer said. “They’re taking calls for service. They’re stopping people, maybe for speeding, investigating traffic accidents — most of that stuff’s patrol. And then they’ll even take the initial report on more major crimes.”
Patrol officers have three different shifts: the day shift, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; the swing shift, from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.; and the graveyard shift, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The officers rotate through the shifts every two months.
Logan Police patrol officers meeting before their shift on Nov. 7.
Low is currently working on the swing shift. At the beginning of the shift, she meets with the officers working with her, including the supervising officers, to discuss any updates or announcements for the day.
She then gets in her car and heads on her way, ready for whatever that day’s shift has in store, which she says is usually “a little bit of everything.”
“I love it. Everything’s different. You know, you never know what’s going to happen or where you’re going to go,” Low said. “You have to switch gears so fast — you go from an accident to a burglary to a domestic dispute.”
Both Nazer and Low grew up in Cache Valley and have now found careers here in Logan. Nazer has been with Logan City for 21 years and has worked in law enforcement for 25 years.
“It’s a great place to work. It’s fun, there’s highs, there’s lows, get your adrenaline rush for the day, but you know, you also get to be like the community policing stuff, and I get to interact with people,” Low said. “It’s a good mix of both.”
Officer Jessica Low on the scene of an accident on Nov. 7.
Over the span of four hours during her shift on Nov. 7, Low responded to an accident, took a report of a theft at Walmart, took multiple citizen assist calls and pulled over four drivers for expired registration.
Low said the accident on Golf Course Road was due to stop signs recently being moved from the north and south entrances of the intersection to the east and west ones.
Throughout her shift, Low can do a large portion of her work from her car, thanks to a computer installed in the vehicle that allows her to access the police call system, databases for license plates, warrants and other relevant information.
She can also file paperwork for different cases and calls she works on, such as the paperwork for the tow trucks that had to be called in for the damaged cars in the accident.
When sitting at stop lights, Low looks up the license plates of cars around her to see if anything flags in the system about the vehicle or the owner of the vehicle. It was doing this that led to her pulling over four cars with expired registrations during the first four hours of her shift.
“A lot of people say that police officers have a ticket quota, but that’s illegal,” Low said. “I obviously set specific goals for my day where I’m like, ‘I want to focus on this’ and ‘I want to talk to people about this,’ but the whole goal of traffic enforcement is informing people.”
Officer Low addresses a person she pulled over on Oct. 7.
Low explained what it is like to be a female officer in the police department.
“You deal with a lot of men outside in public. They’ll make creepy comments and derogatory comments,” Low said. “But all the men in the department are very respectful.”
Low’s patrol covers the city of Logan, except for the area covered by Utah State University Police.
But though USU has its own police department, the Logan Police still deal with students in a variety of issues, especially with students who live off-campus.
Nazer said some issues arise because students aren’t familiar with city ordinances.
“If they’re from elsewhere in Utah, they might know the state laws,” Nazer said. “But here in Logan, we’ve got our own city ordinances.”
One issue Nazer said the police commonly face with students is the overnight street parking ordinance in Logan. From Nov. 15 to March 15, there is no street parking allowed for any vehicle or trailer from midnight to 6 a.m.
This ordinance exists so snow plows and snow removal crews can remove snow from the roads throughout the night.
Another ordinance prohibits parking a vehicle on the street for over 21 consecutive hours.
Nazer also warned that recently, there have been a large number of vehicle burglaries and theft. He said there have been 53 stolen vehicles and 129 vehicle burglaries in Logan this year.
“We encourage people to report it if it does happen, and we’ll investigate it,” Nazer said. “Nobody’s to blame for being burglarized if they leave their vehicle open. But we do recommend that people lock their vehicles, take any valuables out and take the keys out.”
Starting on Nov. 14, USU Police will start working with the Cache County dispatch instead of having their own. This is the same dispatch the Logan Police use. To contact the dispatch, call (435) 753-7555.