Committee backs fund to boost violent-crime clearance rates
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Summary
Lawmakers advanced HB 137 to create a violent-crime clearance-rate fund to finance detectives, forensics and witness services aimed at increasing Utah’s clearance rate, which witnesses said has hovered around 53 percent.
Salt Lake City — The Senate committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended House Bill 137, a measure to create a violent-crime clearance-rate fund within the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) to support detective training, cold-case units, forensics and witness services.
Representative Clancy said the proposal is evidence-driven and focused on making apprehension more certain. "The most effective way to prevent future violence is to solve today's violence," he said, describing the fund as a vehicle to direct resources where they produce the largest public-safety effects.
Jason Olin of the nonpartisan Niskanen Center cited a Utah violent-crime clearance rate of roughly 53 percent since 2019, meaning victims face about a coin flip chance of an arrest. "Those numbers are not an indictment of Utah's law enforcement—the gap here is resources, not effort," Olin said.
Tom Ross of CCJJ also urged support, noting that cold-case units, witness protection and investigator training can improve clearance rates. Committee members asked technical and fiscal questions; the bill’s authors said the fund could accept private donations and federal grants and that they had requested a one-time appropriation for startup support.
The committee voted to favorably recommend the bill and advance it to the Senate floor.