NAACP talks training, transparency, use of force with 10 Utah police agencies


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LAYTON — When it comes to policing in Utah, several law enforcement leaders and members of the NAACP see eye-to-eye on many issues.

They want officers in Utah to wear body cameras during their daily patrols. They believe departments should provide an abundance of training. And they grow somber when they talk about shootings that leave either officers or civilians wounded or dead.

Four departments across the state, including two in attendance at a panel discussion Friday, are currently investigating fatal officer-involved shootings that have occurred in just over a month.

NAACP members from Utah, Idaho and Nevada opened their three-day conference in Layton with a conversation with 10 heads of police Friday representing departments from Ogden to Provo.

"This is community policing. This is the dialogue we want to be having every day," said Provo Police Chief John King, wrapping up two hours of amicable discussion that allowed the panel to explain escalation of force policies, transparency, training for officers and civilian rights when confronted by police.


The troopers are demanding body cameras. They want them worse than the citizens do

–Col. Daniel Fuhr, Utah Dept. of Public Safety


In response to the first question, however, only West Valley Police Chief Lee Russo and Weber County Sheriff Terry Thompson confirmed that their departments have citizen review boards that weigh in on civilian complaints and disciplinary issues.

For the Unified Police Department and the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, citizen advisory boards provide input on policy and operations, but disciplinary issues are forwarded to the deputy sheriff's merit service commission, Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder explained. The Department of Public Safety has a similar civilian board for Highway Patrol troopers, Col. Daniel Fuhr said.

For smaller departments such as North Salt Lake and Bountiful police, a citizen board has never been formed because no situations warranting review have surfaced, Chiefs Craig Black and Tom Ross said. The departments are working with neighboring agencies about possibly forming a shared board.

Participants at the conference urged the chiefs to consider citizen boards for their departments.

Across the board, officers support getting body cameras for their departments, if they don't have them already. It's a question of funding, they said.

"The troopers are demanding body cameras. They want them worse than the citizens do," Fuhr said.

Russo expects to have all West Valley police officers equipped with body cameras by the end of the year at a cost of $250,000.

In Layton, Provo, Bountiful, North Salt Lake, and the Weber County Sheriff's Office, departments are putting plans in place to purchase cameras, while the Sandy police department is looking to buy more. Officers in Salt Lake are already using them.

Ogden police are interested in buying body cameras but are holding off while they wait for a model they like, Chief Mike Ashment said.

When it comes to use of force, officers are trained to step up their response according to the situation. In many cases, simple police presence will defuse a threat, along with verbal commands from officers, Layton Assistant Police Chief Allen Swanson explained. If that alone is ineffective, an officer may take a more hands-on approach, followed by secondary weapons, such as a Taser or pepper spray.

"From there, obviously, it can escalate all the way up to deadly force if the officer feels it is reasonable and if he is protecting his own life or someone else's," Swanson said. "If you look at state law, what it's based on, that's what our training is based around."

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McKenzie Romero

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