Deseret News
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A law enforcement officer bows their head in prayer during the annual Utah Police Memorial Service at the Utah Capitol on Thursday, May 6, 2021. Utah police officers, family, friends and community leaders gathered for the annual service honoring the 147 Utah police officers killed in the line of duty.
Annie Barker, Deseret News
Two names were added to Utah Law Enforcement Memorial this week.
“Today, Franklin Schaerrer and Nate Lyday are chilling examples of the reality of the commitment which lies within each of these fine officers with us today and those across our great state and our great nation,” Ogden Police Chief Eric Young said during the annual memorial service for Utah law enforcement on the west grounds of the state Capitol in Salt Lake City Thursday.
Police across Utah shot at a record 30 people two years ago.
The Utah Attorney General’s Office announced it would study the shootings in reaction to a detailed summary in
The Salt Lake Tribune, which at the time was the only entity compiling a statewide tally. The idea: examine what happened and identify opportunities for police to respond differently following a violent encounter.
But Attorney General Sean Reyes’ team never finished the study. No findings were shared. His staff stopped because it was too difficult to collect the information from police departments.
To this day, no government entity is tracking police shootings in Utah.
Utah police shot at a record-tying 30 people in 2020. But Utahns do not have a clear picture of why this level of violence persists and what can be done about it because the state has failed to collect any data about police shootings.