Sept. 24, 1999
Eighteen times this year, police officers along the Wasatch Front have fired their weapons at someone.
It's a number that seems high, and an Eyewitness News examination of police shootings around the country shows it is.
There are a lot of reasons for the rapid increase in officer-involved shootings, and there is a lot of concern.
News Specialist Stacey Butler has the story.
We surveyed police departments in several metropolitan areas to see how the number of shootings by officers here, compares to those in cities with similar-size populations.
We decided to undertake that survey, because even police officers themselves are concerned that too many times, officers are finding it necesssary to draw their guns.
Sid Groll/Director, Police Officers Standards and Training: "The number is up and I think that's disconcerting for all law enforcement as those kinds of activities are presenting themselves more often than they have before."
In the last 8 months, 18 people have been shot by police officers along the Wasatch Front.
That's more than last year and the year before that combined.
The most recent shooting occured in Ogden less than a week ago.
Police say when they responded to a domestic dispute, a 33-year-old man pointed a gun at them. They fired--killing him. The man was the tenth suspect killed by police this year.
Even though almost all of the shootings have been ruled as justified--the high number is troubling to the ACLU and police alike.
Cori Sutherland/A.C.L.U. Deputy Director: "Our organization is extremely concerned by this dramatic increase in excessive force by law enforcement."
"I think it's on the minds of every agency that they're trying to analyze what they're doing, how they're doing, and the decisions the officers are making, and if there is any reason for them to change, or any reason for us to change."
To put the shootings into context Eyewitness News conducted a survey.
We looked at three other metropolitan areas similar in size.
We found that the Wasatch Front has a disproportionately high rate of these kind of shootings.
Take a look.
In the Sacramento metropolitan area with a population of 1.6 million, there have been seven police shootings since January, compared to the 18 along the Wasatch Front.
Las Vegas, with about the same population as Salt Lake City, has seen 14 shootings by police in the last year.
And the Portland metropolitan area, almost twice the size of Salt Lake, has had just 12 police involved shootings since January.
The director of the local police academy says even the cadets are concerned about being properly trained when it comes to the use of deadly force. And because of the record number of police shootings recently--it's no longer a matter of IF there will be changes to the police academy curriculum--but WHEN.
"Every part of our curriculum we'll look at, whether it's what part of our curriculum is appropriate, what places we need to add things and this is one we critically need to look at."
Trainers at the police academy are on their way to Portland. They hope to learn from those officers how they deal so successfully with the use of deadly force.
In terms of why the number of shootings has skyrocketed--no one knows for sure. Some blame the increase in methamphetamine use and mental illness.
