LOGAN – Speaking guardedly, Logan City Police Chief Jeff Simmons updated members of the Logan Municipal Council on an officer-involved shooting that took place on May 15.
“That kind of thing is not something we’re used to,” Simmons told council members during an opening address at their regular meeting on May 21.
“Thankfully, we don’t have this type of incident happen here in Logan very often,” he added. “I think that the last one took place eight or ten years ago.”
That incident took place at Denzil Stewart Nature Park around 4:30 p.m. when LCPD officers traded gunfire with Adam Scott Phillips, a Layton man who was fatally shot while allegedly attempting to meet for sex with an undercover officer posing as a teenage girl.
Investigation of that critical incident is now in the hands of Cache County Attorney Taylor Sorensen, according to Simmons. Detectives from the Northern Utah Critical Incident Protocol Team are now exploring every facet of that shooting.
While waiting for all the facts of that shooting to come out, Simmons nevertheless praised the involved LCPD officers.
“Our officers acted with great courage and bravery in that incident,” Simmons said confidently.
The unusual incident ironically took place midway through National Law Enforcement Week, which was observed this year during the period from May 12 to 18.
“I wish they’d change that (annual observance) to ‘National Peace Officer Week’,” Simmons remarked to council members. “That’s what we’re trying to emphasize, that we’re peace officers. Law enforcement is part of what we do, but it’s not everything.”
Despite that emphasis by the LCPD, no one can minimize the danger associated with the profession chosen by police officers and sheriff’s deputies here in America.
Since policing began here in the United States, Simmonds explained, a total of 26,619 lawmen have lost their lives, including 1,800 officers over the past five years and 59 deaths in this year alone.
Those grim statistics include Sergeant Bill Hooser, a police officer from Santaquin who was killed earlier this month during a seemingly routine traffic stop.
In praise of his officers, Simmons quoted from a speech he delivered at an LCPD banquet on May 14.
“You are resisted, spit-upon, head-butted, sworn-at, threatened, criticized, second-guessed, falsely-accused, denigrated, maligned, rebuked, abused, assaulted and even forgotten,” he told the gathered lawmen. “Yet you are always here, ready to serve and protect, often the very people who are opposed to everything you hold dear in your hearts.
“You do all that with respect and civility, patiently taking the barbs and insults that come your way.”
Simmonds concluded his remarks by expressing pride in the officers involved in the May 15 shooting incident and the entire Logan City Police Department.
“I couldn’t be more pleased to call them my friends and family,” he said.