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Committee backs substitute to extend assault‑of‑officer protection to family members
Summary
After testimony from local chiefs about threats and assaults at officers’ homes, the committee endorsed a staff substitute (version 5) to expand the assault/threat‑of‑violence statute to cover immediate family targeted because of an officer's status.
The Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee considered amendments to the assault or threat‑of‑violence statute after local chiefs testified about incidents in which officers and their family members were targeted at home.
Chad Larson, associate general counsel for the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, explained the draft would expand the statute so that an actor who intentionally assaults or threatens a person because the person is a peace officer — or assaults or threatens a family member because of that family member’s relation to a peace officer — could be charged under the aggravated statute even if the officer was off duty.
Chief Kent Goodrich and Chief Brad Bishop described cases in Cache County and other jurisdictions in which suspects sought out patrol vehicles at officers’ homes and assaulted family members. Goodrich said prosecutors declined to charge the higher assault‑of‑a‑peace‑officer offense because the officer was off duty and the statute, as written, required the officer to be acting within the scope of the officer’s duties.
Staff presented version 5 of the draft, which adds a defined "family member" (spouse, parent, grandparent, child, sibling, or second‑degree relative) and explicitly requires knowledge that the victim was a peace officer or related to a peace officer and that the assault was motivated by that status. Senator Ipsen moved to favorably recommend version 5 as a committee bill; the committee approved the motion unanimously.
