SALT LAKE CITY — So far in 2018, there have been 15 officer-involved critical incidents in Salt Lake County, according to Cottonwood Heights Police Lt. Dan Bartlett.

Bartlett helps coordinate how the incidents, which most often are shootings, are investigated and processed by law enforcement officials. Last year, there were approximately seven officer-involved incidents; and in 2016, there were about 14, according to Bartlett.

In Salt Lake County, a team made up of investigators from multiple law enforcement agencies investigate the incidents. When that is complete, the team presents its findings to District Attorney Sim Gill and his staff. After that, Gill and his prosecuting team determine whether the officer’s actions were justified and if any criminal charges will be filed in the case.

In 2015, the process for investigating officer-involved incidents changed drastically. Now, there is much more emphasis on transparency, Gill said.

“It is really now the duty of our prosecutors in the 21st century to be that bridge and to really demonstrate that transparency, because that’s really what our community needs, and that’s what our officers deserve,” he said.

Here’s an in-depth look at the process agencies follow when an officer-involved incident takes place.

How do law enforcement officials decide who will investigate an officer-involved incident?

All police agencies in Salt Lake County have adopted an officer-involved critical incident investigative protocol that lays out how the incidents will be handled when they occur. The protocol was put in place in 2015 after a law that mandated its creation, according to South Jordan Police Chief Jeff Carr.

Carr is the chairman of the interagency governing board for officer-involved incidents, which oversees operations of that protocol.

There are three protocol teams that investigate the incidents, and each one is led by a different agency. Salt Lake police, West Valley police and Unified police all lead different teams, though they contain members from multiple agencies.

There is a member from each law enforcement agency in Salt Lake County on at least one of the three teams, according to Carr. An investigator from the district attorney’s office also is embedded with each investigation team, according to Gill.

Each team consists of a team leader, a case manager, six investigators, a forensic unit, an evidence storage unit and a public information officer, according to the protocol document.

The teams are required to have at least one member of a team respond to the scene of an incident within 30 minutes, and the majority of team members should be on scene within an hour, the protocol states.

West Jordan Police Lt. Rich Bell is the coordinator for the investigative teams, and Cottonwood Heights Police Lt. Dan Bartlett is the assistant coordinator. They determine which agency’s team will be dispatched out to an incident to investigate it after it happens.

One team remains “on-call” and ready to respond to an incident the next time one happens, according to the protocol. If that team is led by the agency where the shooting has taken place, it will rotate to a different team in order to avoid a conflict of interest, according to Bartlett.

In other words, if a shooting takes place that involves a West Valley City police officer, the team led by Unified police or Salt Lake police will be assigned to investigate the shooting.

How do the teams investigate officer-involved incidents?

Investigators approach officer-involved incidents and shootings the same way they would approach anything else, Bartlett said.

“These agencies investigate these shootings or these critical incidents like they would any other shooting or critical incident in their city,” he said. “They simply collect all the information, all the data, and they present that to the DA’s office.”

When they are dispatched to an incident, team members are brought up to speed on the basic information, such as where it happened, how many people were involved and how many witnesses there are, Bartlett said.

From there, they start the usual investigation procedure.

Since the investigation team members don’t work for the agency where the shooting occurred, or venue agency, the investigative team is able to remain objective and unbiased, Bartlett said.

“They (officers from the venue agency) have no sway over the investigating agency,” Bartlett said. “They don’t work for them, they don’t answer to them, they don’t have access to them. … And that’s where the integrity of the investigation really holds up, is that you can’t influence that team. That’s why the protocol works so well.”

What happens after the incident investigation is done?

Once investigators have gathered all the evidence from an incident, it’s presented to Gill and his senior staff members. The chief of police for the agency where the incident occurred is also invited to the presentation, Gill said.

Evidence can include forensics, witness statements, statements from any officers involved, video surveillance from police body cameras and audio or visual media from third parties, Gill said.

If the officer involved in the incident has given a statement to the investigators, prosecutors approach the case differently than they would if the officer has not given a statement, according to Gill.

If an officer has given a statement, prosecutors first consider the officer’s justification for his or her actions, Gill said. They then move forward and analyze the evidence to see if there is any basis for criminal charges, he said.

If there is no officer statement, prosecutors look at potential charges that may fit the case, Gill said. Then they further analyze the evidence to see if that data fits the framework for the charge within state statutes.

“When we have statements from officers, it changes the flow of how our inquiry goes,” Gill said. “If we don’t have statements from officers, it just changes our process. We end up to the same analytical spot, though, we just come at it from a different perspective.”

Otherwise, prosecutors approach the case the same way they would screen any other criminal case, Gill said. They look only at the use of force and whether that use of force is legally justified within the scope of the law, he said.

When prosecutors have determined whether the officer's actions were justified, Gill and his deputies release their findings to members of the media and public in a report. That report includes a summary of the investigation and evidence, legal explanations and analysis, ethical standards that relate to the case and any witness statements.

If there is video footage involved in the incident, prosecutors from Gill’s office typically hold a press conference to explain the footage.

“It’s important for us to demonstrate that so people see what we’re looking at,” Gill said.

How do investigators remain objective and transparent?

Law enforcement officials are trained and qualified to investigate shootings and other similar incidents, Bartlett said. They are simply looking to collect data and gather the facts, he said.

“There’s no special way that these are done, compared to a way that they would investigate any other homicide or any other shooting,” he said. “The investigative techniques remain the same.”

He said increased police scrutiny over the past several years hasn’t affected the way the investigations are conducted.

Gill said it’s important to stay transparent in order to build trust with the public. That’s part of the reason the law changed and the critical incident protocol was put in place in 2015, he said.

“There is a broader concern out there, certainly within communities of color, and many other marginalized communities that feel alienated from that process and from accountability,” Gill said. “So there’s an opportunity to share that with them, to build that trust and say that yes, if somebody does something right, here’s what the law is and we will defend them. And if somebody does something wrong, here’s our process by which we will be able to capture that mistake, and in a transparent way share that with you. … The more we can do to share that process with (the public), the better off we’ll be.”

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