Two bills born from last summer s protests get approval by senate committee
Committee passes two bills tied to Utah protests
and last updated 2021-02-18 00:34:45-05
SALT LAKE CITY â Two bills on Capitol Hill with links to last summer s protests are moving forward to the Senate floor. While one focuses on protesters who incite violence, another targets police deescalation and arrest training.
The latter received overwhelming support during Wednesday s Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee.
However, the former saw opposition from organizations like the ACLU of Utah and Salt Lake County District Attorney s Office, while garnering support from citizen groups.
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On Monday, the Utah Senate passed a bill that would add some constraints to the state’s use of facial recognition software.
Republican Senator Daniel Thatcher from West Valley City sponsored S.B. 34, which limits use of the Department of Public Safety’s facial recognition database to law enforcement officials who make a specific request in the course of an investigation.
During the bill’s committee hearing on January 22nd, Senator Thatcher said DPS has the most comprehensive database in the state, currently most often used to compare faces in an attempt to prevent identity theft. In addition to requiring specific requests from officials to use that database, S.B. 34 would also notify people when they are subjected to facial recognition searches.
Credit UPR
On Monday, the Utah Senate passed three bills that would develop and expand the state’s crisis intervention teams.
Republican Senator Daniel Thatcher from West Valley City sponsored Senate Bill 53, which would allow members of the Emergency Medical Service to be certified in behavioral health training. Sen. Thatcher said while Mobile Crisis Outreach Team intervention proves successful in mitigating harm in a mental or behavioral health crisis, there aren’t enough members to cover the need.
“Those Mobile Crisis Outreach Teams are staffed with licensed clinical social workers,” Thatcher said. “And when they are available to respond to a call, there’s a 75% chance that the individual is stabilized and sent home. The problem is, we will never have enough MCOT teams to get to every single behavioral call.”