Utah Law Enforcement Officials Mislead Legislature to Oppose Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform
When “Initiative B” was being considered in 2000 by Utah voters—a measure designed to limit the ability of government to legally take property from people not convicted of a crime—law enforcement officials strenuously...
HB22: Reforming Civil Asset Forfeiture, Protecting Property Owners
This bill passed the House 56-17 but was tabled in a Senate committee. Libertas Institute supports this bill. Utah recently received a “D-” from the Institute for Justice for its forfeiture laws, and the potential for...
HB386: Creating Statewide Guidelines for Police Body Cameras
This bill was not considered by the legislature. Libertas Institute supports this bill. Libertas Institute spent hundreds of man hours over the past year working on a comprehensive proposal for the use of body cameras in Utah....
SB82: Restricting Police Officers Using Forcible Entry into Homes
This bill passed the Senate unanimously and passed the House 67-3. It was subsequently signed into law by Governor Herbert. Libertas Institute supports this bill. Last year, Libertas Institute proposed model legislation to...
Police shootings must be addressed to restore public trust
The following op-ed was published this weekend in the Salt Lake Tribune. Last weekend, The Salt Lake Tribune revealed an alarming data point: In recent years, police officers have killed more Utahns than have gang members. As a...
Forfeiture Revenue for Fiscal Year 2014 Revealed
In a presentation to the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee this week, a representative from the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice presented legislators with a report on how much money has been...
Policing for Justice, or Profit?
Throughout the country, police officers are able to seize a person’s property without that person being charged with—let alone convicted of—a crime. The policy giving legal sanction to this action is known as civil asset...
New ACLU Report on Police Militarization Highlights Problems, Proposes Solutions
After over a year of investigation, surveying law enforcement agencies in 26 states, the ACLU has now released its report on police militarization. “Neighborhoods are not war zones,” the report reads, “and our...
Utah County Sheriff’s Office Acquires Military Vehicle
Libertas Institute received word yesterday from a concerned citizen that there was a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle sitting in a parking lot in Provo. The military vehicle, seen in the photo above, arrived just...
Applying the Incident to Arrest Exception to Digital Devices
By Sean Brian Editor’s Note: The issues at heart of the cases described below were the subject of pioneering legislation in Utah that now protects stored and transmitted data on electronic devices such as a cell phone. Of...