SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Salt Lake City police have arrested 49 people in an effort to weed out drug dealers hidden in crowds of homeless people.
Police Chief Mike Brown tells The Salt Lake Tribune (https://bit.ly/2diWRIR ) that that drug dealers are concealing themselves among 1,500 to 2,000 homeless people in the city’s Rio Grande neighborhood. The area has seen a machete attack, a mass stabbing, a fatal shooting and assaults on police officers in the past two months.
Police targeted the area Thursday, sending 17 people to jail, 30 to treatment programs and two to the hospital.
Most arrestees were given a 90-minute assessment and many were offered a choice of going to jail or going to inpatient treatment immediately.
Officials say those suspected of serious crimes were not given that option.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, https://www.sltrib.com
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