USU and Logan City Police answer questions at “Cops and Cookies” event

The Logan City Police Department and Utah State University Police Departments held an event on campus Tuesday to answer student questions and “address misconceptions about policing,” said Logan City Police Chief Gary Jensen.

Jensen responded to a question about police brutality, saying body cameras help to hold officers accountable.

“Just because it’s a national trend doesn’t mean it’s a local trend,” Jensen said. “In cases where force is used, the police force reviews body camera videos each Monday and sergeants do random video checks as well.”

“We had one incident where a body camera video showed an officer using more force than we were comfortable with,” Jensen said. “He got psychological counseling and treatment for anger management, and he has said now that he is a better husband, father, and policeman. All because of something we saw on his body cam video.”

One student asked how she could feel better about being around police as a minority.

“Sometimes I get a little scared because I’m not white,” she said.

Harris said, “We know there are a lot of students that come from backgrounds that have had negative experiences with officers. At the university, we try to make sure that everybody has some positive experience with an officer.”

Jensen asked the student to consider his side.

“Might I be afraid of you?” he asked. “There’s also potential for people to abuse the very nature of what we’re talking about here. That’s not fair. Equally, it’s not fair for you to be treated unfairly by us.

“Do we stand clean on all issues? Of course not. We have room to improve as well. We all have room to improve, and we all need to work harder to be inclusive of each other.”

Another student asked about sexual assault and how police address sexual assault cases.

“If you’re a victim, we feel your pain,” Jensen said. “But cases aren’t as simple as prosecuting because ‘she said so.’ I often cringe when people say we don’t do anything just because these may not always end in a prosecution or someone going to prison.”

Jensen mentioned the university’s Start By Believing campaign, saying, “As a person, I might start by believing. But as a police officer, I have to start in a neutral position and allow the facts and investigation to take me whichever way they take me.”

Harris mentioned resources students can access that are not necessarily available to the rest of the community, including CAPS and SAAVI.

“We know it takes a lot of courage for someone to come to the police and tell us what happened to them,” Harris said. “We want to make sure they’re taken care of.”

One student asked about the difficulties of police work. Interim Chief Kent Harris said many students on campus struggle with mental health and getting them to the resources they need in a timely manner is difficult when those resources start to get overwhelmed. Jensen also discussed improvement in communication between city and campus police, saying the two departments recently started using the same system to catalog data.

Both officers said the police departments will try to do another similar event in the fall.