“Provo Police, open up!” a Provo Police officer in training yells as he knocks on the door of a hotel trespasser.
DUIs, drug arrests, domestic violence, traffic accidents, fraud, welfare checks, kidnapping, stalkers, murders, homelessness, property damage, vehicle burglaries, assisting other agencies, warrants, service and trespassing are just a few of the duties and encounters that keep police officers busy throughout their shifts.
Officer Josh Woodward is a Provo native. He was born in Provo, grew up in Provo and now polices its streets. As a former constable in Salt Lake City, Woodward now works full time for the Provo Police Department and part time for both BYU Police and Pleasant Grove Police Departments.
Woodward got into law enforcement because as a kid, the guns, badges and bad guys sounded cool, he said. As he got older, he started to view law enforcement as a spiritual experience.
“One day, I’m going to die. And I believe that when I die, I will have to account for the things I did in this life, and I want to be able to say that I did some good in the world and that I helped people, and that I was willing to make sacrifices,” Woodward said.
When Woodward is not on duty, he takes care of his Corgi, Cody, and his cat, Simon. Before he became an officer, Officer Woodward’s favorite pastime was swing dancing.
On duty, Woodward’s favorite calls are stalking cases.
“It is incredibly satisfying when you’re able to find the stalker and arrest them, you’re able to remove that nuisance from the poor victim’s life. I love those cases. I hate when it happens, but I have a lot of pride working those cases because I feel like I do a pretty good job of getting them to stop harassing the victim,” he said.
Before hitting the streets on a typical day shift, Woodward heads to the station at six a.m. to sit down with his squad and share intelligence, review updates from other shifts and receive information about potential hot spots in the city.
Provo has nearly 40 square miles of land to patrol.
“Some days I feel like Provo is a big city. Other days, I feel like Provo is a small town,” Woodward said.
The patrol officer's job is to respond to in-progress calls. An officer could respond to anything from seven to 14 calls a day for service, depending on what shift an officer is on, Woodward said.
On average, an officer spends two or three hours every day on paperwork out of a 10-hour shift.
“We’re essentially triaging and making sure the city doesn’t hurt,” Woodward said.
There is a lot more going on behind the scenes that community members do not realize, Woodward added. Responding to crimes of opportunity such as sexual assaults, property crimes and petty theft keep Woodward busy.
“Some days, I feel like I can’t catch my breath between calls. Other days, I feel like I have a good amount of time to go out and to do the proactive police work that I want to do, stuff that interests me.”
Just before Woodward was done for the day, he came across Harry, who had a warrant out for his arrest for drug possession.
“What's up, Harry? How are you doing today, man? Hey, you know you have a warrant man?” Woodward asked Harry.
“Yeah, I do.”
On the car ride to Utah County Jail, Harry summarized his arrest record.
“Did 15 and a half years for kidnapping. Yeah, I'm an old number. I'm a 22-676,” Harry said. “Time is time."
The job can become very heavy due to the long hours and intense call logs, Woodward said.
Woodward said he balances out the bad things he sees by looking for the silver linings like giving children stickers, showing them the lights on the car and surrounding himself with positive people, he said.
By the end of the day, an officer is exhausted from the number of decisions he has to make because everything an officer does can have an immense effect on someone, he added.
“There’s actually a phenomenon with many police officers — and I experience it too," Woodward said. "So, if I go home and my wife asks me something simple, like, ‘What do you want for dinner tonight?’ By the end of the day, sometimes my brain is so exhausted from making hard decisions that I don’t want to make a small decision like that.”
When he is not making tough decisions, Woodward takes time to get to know the community. Part of the Provo Police Department's community-oriented policing mission is putting officers out in the community so people know officers by name to build more trust between the badge and community members, he said.
“I’m very community oriented. I like to share my job with people because I love my job. I want to show people what we do, why we do it, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Carrying the weight of the community can be a heavy load, Woodward said. He likes to cope with the difficulty of the job with humor.
“We police officers and firefighters, we can go, and we can put that trauma on our shoulders,” Woodward said.
Despite the job's difficulty, Woodward appreciates the opportunity to serve the community.
“This job changes a lot of things about you, for good or for worse," Woodward said, but at the end of the day, "it’s a great calling."
