Sam McCarty
English 2010
September 17, 2009
Public Unsafety
50 years ago the current public safety building was constructed. Currently the building
houses the Fire and Police Departments headquarters, as well as the emergency dispatch
center. The prior tenants of the building were the Northwestern Pipeline Company. After they
left, because the building didn’t meet the needs of the company, the police and fire
departments moved in to use it as a temporary headquarters. Twenty years later the temporary
headquarters are still in use.
Recently Salt Lake City has been campaigning for funds to build a new Public Safety
Building, known as proposition #1. If approved proposition #1 will allocate $125 million in
general obligation bonds for the construction of a new Public Safety Building, and Emergency
Operations Center for Salt Lake City. This is the second time the City has put this issue to a
public vote, as it was narrowly defeated in 2007. If put into effect Proposition #1 will increase
the average residential property tax will increase 6.25 per month, which adds up to $75 a year.
The average business’s taxes will
go up $43.52 a month, or $522.32
a year.
In 1957 the building was
designed to house 275 employees,
today it holds over 500 public
Figure 1: location of fault zones downtown
service and emergency response personnel. This is in direct violation of the industries minimum
standards. After 52 years the building has begun to deteriorate structurally, as parts of the
building have been condemned. These areas include three bathrooms and the original parking
structure. The evidence storage facility is prone to sewage leaks from the upper floors
bathrooms forcing employees to wear disposable ponchos and particle masks. Every year the
building costs over $650,000 in maintenance and operation costs. The upkeep cost around 70%
more than similar sized buildings in the city.
The Wasatch fault line is one of the most dangerous Faults in the nation, and the
department of homeland security has placed Salt Lake on a list of 62 U.S. cities at high risk for
man-made and natural disasters. When the earthquake that geologist predict will occur in the
valley the PSB, or Public Safety Building, will be at high risk of structural failure. If the building
were to collapse it would knock out
An Emergency Operations Center, or EOC for short, is a centralized response center
used by emergency services in case of a disaster. After a disaster the EOC staff sees to the
strategic use of resources such as police and fire. EOC are often in hardened high security
buildings that can withstand major disasters or terrorist attacks. Salt Lake City does not have a
unified EOC. Each department that has responsibilities in a disaster has their own response
centers. These response centers have little security
and are in areas that have high traffic which could
allow unauthorized personal access to these vital
areas. The PSB is located on the street at the
intersection of 3rd East and Second South. Since this
Figure 2: The current PSB located at 3rd east and 2nd south
is such a busy intersection security would be unable to stop a car from driving up right next to
the building. Unfortunately if anything were to happen to the infrastructure and the
communications go down these centers would be unable to coordinate a response with each
other. In an emergency setting a quick and effective response to the disaster is absolutely
necessary, as often the difference between life and death is often only minutes.
Ironically the PSB creates an unsafe working environment for the employees that work
there. On a regular basis the elevators will get stuck trapping passengers for five to twenty
minutes while an emergency fire team is pulled from the city to free them. The bathrooms have
a tendency to flood and cause a rain of sewage in the evidence and work storage rooms. In the
summer offices can get as hot as 80 degrees and in the winter drop as low as fifty, despite the
fact that the air conditioners and heaters run constantly wasting energy and resources. The
electrical system is also prone to failure because of high electrical usage of today’s equipment
running on a 1957 electrical circuit made for lamps and electric typewriters.
The new Public Safety Complex the City is pushing for will include a five story Police and
Fire Headquarters, and a dedicated EOC in a separate building. These new building would be
built to the current earthquake codes allowing them to remain operational after the disaster.
The complex would also be built with the latest is security and prevention technology to help
detect and deter possible terrorist attacks.
“When the big hits”, says Battalion Chief McCarty, “police and fire will be unable to
coordinate an effective response to the situation. It will then fall onto individual units to
respond without a unified command structure, because we’ll all be in the rubble.”
Works Cited
Figure 1 www.slcgov.com/psb/images/PSB-SiteMap.JPG
Figure 2 www.Ksl.com
Poll: Most Voters Support Public Safety Bond, associated press 2009, connect2utah.com
Public Press releases from the mayor’s office
Poll: Most Voters Support Public Safety Bond, associated press 2009, connect2utah.com
Public Press releases from the mayor’s office:
Bianca Shreeve. Proposition #1: Public Safety Buildings – Is now the Right Time? Sep. 11 2009
Bianca Shreeve. Proposition #1: Public Safety Buildings - Assessing the Need. Sep. 8 2009
Bianca Shreeve. Proposition #1: Public Safety Buildings on November’s Ballot. Aug 28 2009
Maria Kennedy Public Safety Building Bond Has Broad Support. August 26 2009
Interview with Battalion Chief Gary McCarty. Friday September 10 2009