HB 57 Law Enforcement Investigation Amendments addresses the use of reverse-location or geofence warrants. Specifically, it creates a three-step process for law enforcement to generate geofence-retrieved information, each step of which must be approved by a magistrate. It also establishes law enforcement reporting requirements for reverse-location warrants. While we do not support the implicit legitimization of geofence warrants, we do think that this is an improvement from current practice.

HB 61 School Safety Requirements creates the School Security Task Force. The original version of this bill required all secondary schools to have a school resource officer (SRO), but this was removed in the final language. Instead, the bill standardizes SRO guidelines.

HB 199 Voluntary Firearm Safekeeping Amendments prohibits a law enforcement agency that receives a firearm from the owner or the owner's cohabitant for safekeeping from returning the firearm to the owner if the owner: is a restricted person; or has been arrested and booked into jail on a class A misdemeanor or felony domestic violence offense, has had a court review the probable cause statement and determine that probable cause existed for the arrest, and is subject to a jail release agreement or a jail release court order. This bill also directs the Department of Public Safety to create a pamphlet detailing a domestic violence victim's rights to commit the perpetrator's firearm to a law enforcement agency.

HB 223 Drug and Alcohol Enforcement Amendments requires the Department of Public Safety to have ten law enforcement officers with a primary focus on drug-related offenses.

HB 236 Driving Under the Influence Testing Amendments gives law enforcement civil and criminal immunity to liability from drawing a blood sample from a person suspected of DUI if the blood is drawn in a secure area within a law enforcement facility with a valid warrant or consent.

HJR 10 Proposal to Amend Utah Constitution - Election of County Sheriffs amends the Utah Constitution to establish the office and term of a county sheriff.

SB 49 Juvenile Custodial Interrogation Amendments changes the time police officers may detain youth in a law enforcement holding room from 2 to 4 hours. Creates youth specific Miranda warnings.

SB 101 Peace Officer Training Amendments requires a police officer's basic training to include training on identifying, responding to, and reporting a criminal offense that is motivated by certain personal attributes.

SB 117 Domestic Violence Amendments creates a standardized domestic violence lethality assessment protocol and requires any law enforcement officer who responds to a report of domestic violence between intimate partners to conduct a lethality assessment. It requires the lethality assessment to be submitted with a probable cause statement to the court and allows the assessment to be used in determining a person’s pretrial release status. It originally required the lethality assessment to be included in a presentence report, but we were able to remove that provision. We opposed the lethality assessment being used in either situation because the tool was originally designed to help victims know whether they should seek additional services and it has not been validated for use as a tool with any predictive value for reoffending. Unfortunately, we did not have enough support to limit it any further. Practitioners should be prepared to argue to judges that the assessment was never intended to be used as a pretrial release risk tool and the results are easy to manipulate and misinterpret.

SB 124 Law Enforcement Officer Amendments requires a law enforcement agency to use an early intervention system, as well as requiring agencies to perform background checks on any law enforcement officer they hire. It also authorizes POST to discipline a chief executive who fails to report misconduct with a Letter of Caution or suspension/revocation of their certification. We have previously worked on the issue of police discipline standardization with the sponsor, however, the version of the bill that passed this year is markedly different from past versions we were involved in. Although these aren’t the reforms we brought to the sponsor, we still think it’s a step in the right direction and plan to look for more reforms in this area going forward.

SB 148 Invisible Condition Information Amendments creates the invisible condition alert program. It requires DPS to ensure that an individual's information in the invisible condition alert program is immediately available to a dispatcher.

SB 156 Investigative Genetic Genealogy Modifications allows for the use of genetic genealogy information by law enforcement when the user gives consent. It excludes the private databases of companies like 23andMe and Ancestry.com. 

SB 226 Electronic Information or Data Privacy Act Amendments specifies the types of electronic data that can be collected by law enforcement without a warrant. It also states that the automobile exception to the warrant requirement is inapplicable to electronic data stored on devices found in a car.