SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 25, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — The Salt Lake City Police Department is releasing resources from the site of a downtown investigation after determining a “suspicious” item reported this morning is not dangerous.
“We have determined the suspicious item does not pose any threat,” says an SLCPD tweet posted at 2:34 p.m. Monday.
“We are releasing resources on scene, but that process may take between 60 to 90 minutes. We are asking people to continue avoiding the area.”
Photos from the scene appeared to show a robot being readied to check out the object.
The investigation began just before 8 a.m. Monday with a report to dispatch of a possibly hazardous object in an alley near the U.S. Bank Tower, at 170 S. Main St.
Agencies responding to the scene as part of the investigation included the FBI, the Air National Guard, the county bomb squad, and the Salt Lake City Police and Fire departments.
Lt. Mark Wian talked to reporters at the scene at about 1:15 p.m. Monday. Asked about what made the object suspicious, Wian did not give details.
“There’s something here that just doesn’t seem right. It’s out of the ordinary. So when we get here it starts with that initial response with our patrol officers working with our on-duty watch commander to determine how we need to scale it up or scale it down.
“Clearly we have scaled it up,” in order to cover all the bases with available resources from around the valley, Wian said.
“We’re fortunate to partner with the Air National Guard, the county Bomb Squad, the FBI, the fire department to work together collaboratively … to make sure that we’re reaching a peaceful resolution.”
South Temple between between Main Street and West Temple was closed to traffic for multiple hours during the investigation.
The SLCPD tweet promised an update on the investigation’s finding as soon as 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Gephardt Daily will have more information as it becomes available.
