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Bill was tempered to apply only to people in suicidal crises
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Carbon County Sheriff’s Office
SALT LAKE CITY Utah lawmakers are advancing a bill that would limit when police can use deadly force, but only if a person is solely a danger to him or herself.
The Utah House voted 54-16 to approve a tempered version of HB237 on Tuesday. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
House Minority Assistant Whip Jennifer Dailey-Provost’s HB237 in its original form would have changed the justification in Utah’s statute for a police officer to use lethal force to include both of the words “reasonable and necessary” not just “necessary” to prevent a suspect from escaping or to prevent death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another person.
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A bill seeks to limit when police can use lethal force.
Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, is sponsoring the legislation. It aims to prevent police from shooting someone having a suicidal crisis as long as they aren’t a threat to someone else.
Rae Duckworth, an activist with Black Lives Matter Utah, helped Dailey-Provost present the bill. Officer Garrett Safely killed Duckworth’s cousin, Bobby, in Carbon County in 2019. Safely was responding to a call about a suicidal man.
“If this [bill] was active prior to Sept. 10, 2019, it could have saved Bobby’s life and encouraged Officer Safely to utilize less than lethal options and take necessary steps to conserve a life,” Duckworth said.
Bill looks to prevent âbadâ officers from easily jumping departments in Utah
SB196 was spurred by an officerâs misconduct in University of Utah student-athlete Lauren McCluskeyâs case.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People gather for a memorial walk on the track where University of Utah student and track athlete Lauren McCluskey used to compete on the two-year anniversary of her murder on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. A bill spurred by the officer s misconduct in handling her case is moving through the Utah Senate. | Updated: Feb. 20, 2021, 2:25 a.m.
A state lawmaker wants to open up communication between police departments across Utah to talk about poorly performing officers or those accused of misconduct and prevent them from easily jumping from agency to agency.
On Jan. 21, Reta Wallis returned home from work to find the Black Lives Matter sign in a planter against her house smoldering and an individual fleeing from the scene.
âIt was just a really shocking thing, because Iâve heard of peopleâs signs being stolen or vandalized, but this was an intentional plan,â Wallis said. âTo bring an accelerant to spray and to burn this sign, it just felt different.â
To address the lack of response to the hate crime, which â like other local instances of racism experienced in the community â the family felt was handled nonchalantly by local law enforcement, a protest against racism and vigil for those racism has killed was organized in Logan for last Saturday by the Logan and Utah chapters of Black Lives Matter.