Overview
Utah Code Ann. § 77-7-8.5 directs all Law Enforcement Agencies to document and report incidents where a forcible entry is made and/or a tactical group is deployed. The Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) is tasked with summarizing these statutory requirements on an annual basis. A reportable incident is defined as:
- a forcible entry while serving a warrant or;
- a Tactical Group (SWAT, Drug Task Force, etc.) is deployed and/or makes a forcible entry with or without a warrant.
Following are summarized key findings for the 2019 year. It should be emphasized that the information presented in this report is only as accurate and complete as the data submitted by each individual agency.
Key Findings
There were 203 forcible entries that occurred out of the 400 total incidents reported in 2019 (51%). This is a slight increase from previous year, 2018 (46%). The remaining half of the 2019 incidents did not necessitate forcible entries involving tactical team deployments or where warrants were served.
About 38 percent of these incidents occurred in Salt Lake County, followed by Utah County at 23 percent and Weber County at 10 percent. Similar to previous year’s report, law enforcement tactical deployments and forced entry incidents were mostly related to to drug crimes (>75%), followed by “evidence” (10%), person crimes (7%), and property crimes (3%).1 A threat assessment was completed 86 percent of the time.
Warrants were obtained in more than 98 percent of the reported incidents, with tactical groups obtaining warrants at a higher rate than non-tactical and drug-task force groups. The vast majority of all warrants pertained to drug crimes (77%), followed by non-violent persons crimes (11%), violent crimes against persons (6%) and property crimes (4%).
Similar to 2018, “Knock & Announce-Day” and “No-Knock-Night” warrants were obtained in the majority of the reported incidents (54% and 21% respectively). This was followed by “Knock & Announce-Night” (19%) and “No-Knock-Day” (5%). Evidence was seized in 94 percent of the reported incidents, with property being seized 13 percent of the time. The mean number of arrests across all incidents was 1.8 (median=1, min=0, max=23).
Weapons (including non-firearms) were brandished by suspects in 13 of the 400 reported incidents (3%). One incident involved firearms being used by suspects. This incident pertained to forcible entry.
Two of the reported incidents resulted in officer shots, with five civilians being injured and one reported fatality. There were no reported injuries or fatalities among law enforcement personnel. Lastly, one of the reported incidents resulted in an animal being injured, with no reported fatalities.
The remaining reasons for deployment included barricaded suspect (n=9), violent felony warrant (n=4), felony warrant (n=3), robbery (n=1), and suicidal subject (n=1).↩︎