Nine members of Lebanon’s national police force are scheduled to visit Park City over the weekend to observe the local authorities as they protect the Kimball Arts Festival, a rare opportunity for the agencies involved to trade stories about law enforcement.
The Lebanese officers are with that country’s Internal Security Forces and have traveled to the U.S. as part of a State Department program. Phyllis Robinson, the City Hall spokesperson, said the group from Lebanon is also traveling to Salt Lake City and Riverside, Calif. She said three interpreters will accompany the Lebanese officers.
Robinson said the group is expected to arrive Thursday night. Meetings are scheduled on Friday with Park City Police Department brass as well as with Hugh Daniels, who directs City Hall’s emergency operations.
The Lebanese group will be shown how City Hall’s Emergency Operations Center, located at the police station, works and will visit the Park City Fire District station at Canyons, Robinson said. She said they are scheduled to meet with Sheriff Dave Edmunds as well.
The group will be brought to Main Street on Friday to observe the setup for the festival, which opens that evening.
The Lebanese on Saturday will be assigned to Park City officers as they patrol the arts festival and other parts of the city.
“They’re sort of seeing it firsthand, on the ground,” Robinson said.
Wade Carpenter, the police chief, said the officers from Lebanon are interested in learning about how the department balances protecting the arts festival and making sure there are enough officers on normal patrols in other parts of the city.
Carpenter said he intends to describe how officers are assigned to different areas of the city at the same time as officers are positioned at the festival.
“They’re more of a military operation than we are. A big part of what we do is community-oriented policing,” he said.
The police chief said the Lebanese officers do not hold police powers while they are in the U.S. He was unsure whether the Lebanese will be dressed in their police uniforms or whether they will be outfitted in civilian clothes. Carpenter said two Lebanese officers and an interpreter will likely be partnered with police officers on Saturday.
“We’re an international community. I think it gives us a better understanding of how different cultures operate,” Carpenter said.
The Police Department has for decades taken pride in its protection of special events ranging from the 2002 Winter Olympics and international skiing competitions to arts and culture gatherings like the annual Sundance Film Festival.
The arts festival typically brings some of the largest three-day crowds of the year to Park City, with nearly 50,000 people counted at the festival in 2010.
The crowds normally are behaved, but the Police Department handles numerous calls about minor incidents nonetheless. The department brings in reinforcements for the festival, sometimes from the University of Utah campus police and law enforcement agencies in the Salt Lake Valley.