House circles bill to authorize peace-officer training for Utah State Hospital security staff

The Utah House debated House Bill 12, a measure from Representative Joanne R. Milner that would authorize security personnel at the Utah State Hospital to receive peace-officer training and perform certain on-site enforcement and investigative duties.

Milner opened by citing the April 1990 on-site stabbing of a hospital employee and argued that better-trained security staff are needed to handle trespassers, vandalism and incidents involving chronically mentally ill patients. "This bill was to authorize the personnel down there to go through peace officer training," Milner said, adding the training would be limited to on-site authority.

Members questioned how those special-function officers would be classified for training and retirement: would they fall under the public-safety retirement system or remain in the standard state retirement program? Several representatives asked whether the training would be Category 1 or Category 2 under POST (Peace Officers Standards and Training); colonel and POST signals were discussed on the floor but no final classification was adopted during the session.

After extended questioning and an acknowledgment that the bill had support from law-enforcement leadership for enhanced on-site training, Representative Valentine moved to circle HB 12 to allow further review; that motion passed and the bill was placed on hold for additional consideration.

Next steps: HB 12 has been circled for further study and will return to the floor or a committee with clarifications on training category, retirement implications and interagency coordination.