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SALT LAKE CITY — There have been five police shootings across the Wasatch Front since Oct. 10. Three people were killed, one was injured and another didn't hit anyone.
As investigators look into what happened in each case, a check of a police shooting database shows Utah’s numbers are up in 2018.
The Washington Post has maintained a database of deadly police shootings. In 2015, it shows 10 people were killed in the Beehive State. There were eight people killed in 2016, and in 2017, there were seven people killed.
As of Oct. 1, the database showed that nine people have been killed in 2018 in Utah. The incidents since Oct. 1 bring that number to 12.
Attorney Greg Skordas said he hopes those numbers turn around. He has often represented police officers after they’ve shot someone.
“I hope we don’t see a trend going here. I hope that the fact that we’re seeing more this year than we have in the past isn’t anything other than just a blip,” Skordas said.
The numbers have incensed Dave Newlin, an organizer for Utahns Against Police Brutality.
“Five police shootings in the last nine days — these are government officials. Government officials are out there shooting people with no oversight,” Newlin said.
Skordas thinks there were a few factors at work.
“We do have a lot more, it seems, mentally ill offenders on the streets. We have a lot more incidents of domestic violence than we’ve seen in the past,” Skordas said. “Those are two huge triggers for officers to be involved when there’s a very tense situation.”
Newlin believed it has a lot to do with a lack of prosecution in police shootings here in Utah.
“When they’re confronting somebody, when they’re aggressively pursuing somebody, chasing them down, banging on their door, kicking their door down, they know it will be very unlikely that they will face any consequences for that,” Newlin said.
As the cases are investigated, Skordas said there’s a lot more evidence than there used to be.
“I think we’re looking at these cases a lot more closely than we have in the past,” he said.
Newlin said that evidence should be in the hands of a civilian oversight board.
“We need independent oversight. We can’t just let people’s bosses investigate them,” Newlin said.
