‘A PhD in People-ology’: UTA police work to build bonds with riders

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Riding the rails through the Salt Lake valley, you’ll likely see a UTA police officer. Officers walk up and down TRAX trains, checking passes, making connections with riders and helping when needed.

For police who wear the badge for UTA, people skills are a must. Officer Andrew Bryson said it takes a PhD in People-ology, on this edition of Behind the Badge.

UTA police have a lot of opportunities to develop good conversation skills. UTA officers on patrol do more talking to more people per day than the rest of their colleagues across the state.

“The variety of our population that we deal with out here… professional staff up at the U, professors from the University and students and regular working day folks that use the system to get around to folks that are dealing with being unhoused and mental illness,” said Bryon. “You have to be a lot of things to a lot of people.”

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UTA police have a lot of interaction with people riding public transit every day. It adds up to be a total of 94,000 interactions a month or at least 100 for each officer per day. That’s five times more than most law enforcement agencies in the state.

They cover trains and buses from Pleasant View to Provo and their goal is to make each ride safe. Moving through the crowd of people and making sure everything is OK and everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

Their presence doesn’t go unnoticed.

“It’s not just the inspections that we’re after,” said UTA Chief of Police Dalan Taylor. “It’s really building that bond with the community that we’re serving. [From,] ‘Do you have your fare with you?’ to ‘What are you studying in school?’ and getting to know all the different people riding in the system.”

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Officer Bryson said that’s the best part. He told ABC4 his job is a lot of fun and he really enjoys it.

Police believe honing these people skills is good preparation for when the Olympics come back to Salt Lake City in 2034. The world will come to town and you can bet many of them will ride UTA.

So the next time you ride TRAX, expect to see an officer or two there to greet you.

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