Deseret News
Utah lawmaker wants to allow charges to be brought in cases even after victims have died
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University of Utah
SALT LAKE CITY Shock waves from the death of University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey and its aftermath continue to be felt as one lawmaker is proposing a bill to change the state’s revenge porn law.
More than two years ago, McCluskey shared intimate photos with a university police officer to aid in the investigation of her eventual killer, Melvin Shawn Rowland, 37, who was blackmailing her with the photos. A review conducted by the Utah Department of Public Safety found that officer accessed them multiple times and showed them to others on his phone on at least four occasions.
A Utah lawmaker has proposed a bill that would crack down on rioting. Caption: KUTV: Daniel Woodruff reports State Sen. David Hinkins (R-Ferron) told 2News he filed the bill after seeing violent protests in Salt Lake City last year and in Washington, D. C. this month. “We’re a land of laws,” Hinkins said. “If we can’t enforce our laws, where are we at? ” Senate Bill 138 takes aim at rioters, toughening penalties and allowing some rioters to be.
Utah Senate panel advances bill to regulate government use of facial recognition technology
Law enforcement routinely uses the Driver License Division’s database to identify criminals and prevent fraud, but Utahns have no guarantees about how their images are used.
(Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo) This Oct. 1, 2019, file photo shows the gold star required by the federal government on state driver licenses. In this year s session of the Utah Legislature, Sen. Daniel Thatcher is proposing limited regulation of how government agencies can use facial technology on the state s Driver License Division database. The bill passed its first legislative hurdle on Friday.
Senate committee recommends bill to âraise the barâ on use of gang enhancement penalties
The proposal would ensure the law applies primarily to violent offenses against people â not in cases like when protesters spread paint on a street in July.
(Francisco Kjolseth | Tribune file photo) Jim Winder, left, chief of investigations at the Salt Lake County District Attorney s Office, overlooks the damage to the building after protesters reacted to the announced ruling by Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill on Thursday, July 9, 2020, that the shooting death of 22-year-old Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal in May by police officers was legally justified. On Thursday, a Senate committee unanimously advanced a bill that would âraise the barâ for use of the gang enhancement by ensuring it applies primarily to violent offenses against people â not property â and by increasing the number of participants who need to be involved in a crime before it could b
SALT LAKE CITY Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has selected a police chief to oversee criminal justice initiatives, a first in the nearly 40-year history of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.
The appointment of Tom Ross, the former Bountiful police chief of 14 years, comes amid calls for police reform in Utah part of a national reckoning on racial justice and shortcomings of recent criminal justice reform that have frustrated law enforcers.
Ross, a past president of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association, has played a role in shaping new state laws that help people in crisis get mental health treatment more quickly, plus other policies to address drug addiction and domestic violence in the Beehive State.