Judge to mull disbanding polygamous towns’ police agency

2015 file photo of a Hildale/Colorado City Marshal's vehicle with old logo that is no longer used by the department, Hildale City Hall, Hildale, Utah, Sept. 19, 2015 | File photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

PHOENIX (AP) — A court hearing beginning Monday will explore the federal government’s bid to disband the shared police department for two polygamous towns in Arizona and Utah that were found to have discriminated against nonbelievers.

The four-day hearing in Phoenix will examine remedies that U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland could order in response to a jury’s finding seven months ago that nonbelievers were denied police protection, building permits and water hookups in adjacent Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

Jurors concluded officers treated nonbelievers inequitably, arrested them without having probable cause and made unreasonable searches of their property.

The towns vigorously oppose the request to disband the police department.

Read more: Polygamous towns oppose bid to disband police department.

Written by JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press.

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7 Comments

  • Bob October 24, 2016 at 11:46 am

    should’ve been done many years ago. i dont get it

  • RealMcCoy October 24, 2016 at 1:44 pm

    Of course the villagers oppose the disbandment.
    Once real cops show up, half of that town will be in jail, and not for the offenses people automatically think of.
    We’re talking about Minors operating farm machinery on the main roads; unlicensed drivers puttering around town; warrants; midnight burials in the unofficial cemetery…

  • tcrider October 24, 2016 at 2:02 pm

    this would be a tough job to do, who is going to police the poly clowns in that town?
    the polys will resent who ever is doing it, be a Mormon or a poly, a non believer would
    be shunned, no doubt. I have had people fly by me like I was standing still, and I was exceeding the speed limit out there, its like there is no law enforcement, I have been told that over half of the people out there do
    not have auto insurance and there seems to be a lot of accidents out there.

  • Ronnie Keith October 24, 2016 at 6:59 pm

    Eveyone knows they are just Jeffs paid thugs and enforcers. What is there too think about? Each and everyone of those officers are Jeffs accomplices and are just as guilty as him. All of them deserve a prison cell just like their leader!

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