Crime and policing

This bill adds about $1.2 billion in spending for the state's fiscal year 2027, which begins July 1, including $366 million from the general and income tax funds.

H.B. 3 is the state's main spending bill for the coming year, setting a total budget of about $31.6 billion from all sources, with increases for public and higher education, social services, and criminal justice.

This bill sets the base state budget for fiscal year 2027 for several criminal justice and public safety agencies, totaling about $1.35 billion.

This bill sets state agency fees and internal service fund rates for the coming year, many of which are unchanged and must be reauthorized each year.

The bill says that a vehicle running on diesel fuel alone is not enough reason for police to dip its fuel tank to check for dyed fuel.

H.B. 20 would create a restricted account to pay for building or expanding future state correctional facilities.

H.B. 23 would require the state's Division of Corporations and Commercial Code to post on its website information explaining the law on service animals and emotional support animals, along with contact information and a link to the Disability Law Center.

The bill lowers several minor traffic offenses to infractions, including speeding 21 to 29 miles per hour in school zones and careless driving.

The bill would bar people from attaching objects or stickers to political signs in ways that cover or change the sign's message, and would let cities and counties remove noncompliant signs.

H.B. 34 would write the victim rights coordinator role into state law and set out that role's duties.

H.B. 44 would let some school staff who are not full-time police officers be designated as special function officers to respond to emergencies and act until law enforcement arrives, with added training.

The bill would require crypto ATM operators to show fraud warnings, limit daily transactions to $2,000 for the first three days and $5,000 a day after that, and provide a customer service line.

The bill would let people carry a concealed firearm on Utah higher education campuses without a permit, matching the rules elsewhere.

The bill creates a court process to decide where an animal lawfully impounded in a pending animal cruelty case should be placed, such as with a shelter, rescue group, foster home, or through forfeiture.

The bill would bar law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and other government officials from asking or requiring a sexual assault victim to take a polygraph, or lie detector, exam.

The bill would let a person ordered to pay a court fine get credit against it for completed court-ordered classes or treatment, including mandatory fines, unless a prosecutor objects or the judge declines.

HB 101 would remove the separate Utah background check that buyers must currently pass when acquiring a firearm regulated under the federal National Firearms Act, after they have already received federal approval for that transfer.

This bill would let crime victims use only their initials instead of full names on public documents such as police reports and charging documents.

H.B. 110 would change probation and parole supervision, adding stricter oversight for high-risk people convicted of Class B misdemeanors and new accountability rules for parole violations that take victims into account.

The bill caps the late fee for failing to report big game hunt harvests at $25.

H.B. 122 would extend the limits on restraining inmates to cover up to 12 weeks after childbirth, with exceptions for security or safety risks.

H.B. 123 would require people who move to Utah from another state and must register as sex, kidnap, or child abuse offenders to register on Utah's registry, even if their previous state did not require registration.

This bill would let the state's Adjutant General, the head of the National Guard, accept donations for a museum partnership program, a humanitarian program, and emergency response efforts.

H.B. 134 raises the fee for Utah probationers or parolees who transfer supervision to another state from $50 to $90.

H.B. 137 would create a violent crime clearance rate fund to help Utah law enforcement agencies solve more violent crimes.

This bill would remove the four-year time limit for prosecuting female genital mutilation offenses, so charges could be brought at any time.

This bill would set a minimum due process standard that a city or town must follow before suspending a law enforcement officer for more than two days.

The bill makes it a crime, a class A misdemeanor, to secretly track someone's personal property, such as a backpack, clothing, or a bicycle, or to track a person through a built-in app, without consent.

This bill would stop courts from letting people fined for school-zone speeding work off the fine by standing with a school crossing guard.

HB 188 would set clearer rules for school searches, including who may conduct them, and require schools to refer all juvenile drug offenses to law enforcement.

The bill would let local governments create 'stay out of drug areas' where law enforcement can keep repeat offenders out of targeted public spaces with open drug markets.

This bill changes the procedures for court-ordered competency evaluations of criminal defendants without changing how the evaluations are done.

The bill changes Utah's firearm liability rules so that claims against firearm sellers and manufacturers are limited to their own wrongful conduct, and courts must dismiss claims that do not meet the bill's specified requirements.

HB 217 would bar cities, counties, and police agencies from enforcing any rule that delays or limits when a person can report a vehicle stolen.

This bill moves several required public safety reports to the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ), which would collect, standardize, manage, and publish the data on a statewide public safety data portal.

The bill creates a new second-degree felony for intentionally encouraging suicide through coercion, with mandatory fines of at least $10,000 for that offense and $20,000 for first-degree sexual extortion.

H.B. 230 would let county jails help inmates serving longer than six months renew or replace driver's licenses or state IDs before release, including through a virtual option.

This bill would let the state fire marshal, through the Utah Fire Prevention Board, create a licensing and certification program so that private third parties can install and certify large carbon dioxide tank systems used by businesses.

This bill would add proposition betting to the state's definition of gambling, so those bets would not be allowed in Utah.

The bill sets a process for removing non-lawyers who enter court appearances for others, and lets the Bar seek injunctions against unauthorized practice of law.

This bill amends Utah's Electronic Information Privacy Act to set when state and local police may obtain electronic evidence from another jurisdiction and when that evidence may be thrown out in court.

This bill adds metal theft to the duties of the multi-agency joint strike force, which coordinates efforts across cities and counties.

The latest version of H.B. 274 changes the membership of the Utah Sentencing Commission.

This bill adds depraved indifference murder back into Utah's murder law.

H.B. 289 splits child sexual abuse material into three categories: real children, AI-generated images that appear to show children under 12 or prepubescent, and obscene material depicting minors or adults.

H.B. 299 defines the terms arrest, charge, and adjudication in the state school code on responding to sexual offenses.

This bill rewrites Utah's drug laws so the statutes better match their stated purpose.

This bill would remove the state requirement that the Bureau of Criminal Identification create and keep a separate duplicate form for firearm purchases.

The bill would require the state to pay for medical care for people in state correctional custody at the Medicare rate, instead of the higher charge rates the University of Utah hospitals and clinics currently bill.

HB 331 would make it a crime to unlawfully advance a foreign terrorist organization, meaning groups on a State Department list.

The bill would require recovery operators, who clear crashed commercial vehicles and cargo, to carry a $40,000 endorsement and would require dispatchers to confirm operators are qualified.

H.B. 354 makes it a Class B misdemeanor to tamper with, damage, or destroy rescue tracking equipment, which is small GPS devices placed in public restrooms and rest stops.

The bill requires the Department of Public Safety to run a location monitoring program, using ankle monitors paid for by the state, for registered sex offenders who do not give a residential address.

The bill sets up new rules for electric bikes and scooters, sorting them into classes by top speed and power.

This bill makes technical cleanup changes to Utah's health and human services code after the merger of two state agencies.

The bill would create a new specialized products license for tobacco, vaping, CBD, and similar product shops, with a $600 yearly fee that pays for Department of Agriculture and Food oversight.

H.B. 390 would create a clinical study of psychedelic treatment for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD, to be conducted at Huntsman Mental Health Institute under existing federal and university research protocols.

The bill would create a controlled substance license that emergency medical services agencies could hold, allowing them to deliver controlled substances and medications under a licensing process.

The bill makes penalties for hit-and-run crashes that cause injury or death match DUI penalties, and raises a fatal hit-and-run to a second-degree felony.

The bill would bar cities and other local governments from charging general fees for broadband and public safety.

The bill limits when a road crossing private land can be closed, keeping roads open if they have long been used to reach public land or other private property.

H.B. 454 makes it a crime to knowingly obtain or use public assistance through fraud, with penalties from a Class B misdemeanor to a second-degree felony based on the dollar amount.

The bill changes Utah's capital felony case process, including how the Utah Supreme Court conducts automatic review, limits ineffective assistance claims to separate post-conviction cases, and expands and raises pay for post-conviction counsel.

The bill expands the crime of defacing archaeological features on public land to cover other alterations or destruction, not just graffiti.

This bill clarifies several Utah criminal and domestic violence laws.

H.B. 547 would address transnational repression, which is pressure or harm directed at people by a foreign government, with a focus on students at Utah higher education institutions.

H.B. 572 would fund a receiving center grant program, raise Collaborative Care Medicaid rates, continue a family outreach specialist at the Office of Medical Examiner, and add peer support and suicide prevention funding, along with changes to the Sequential Intercept model and civil commitment processes.

This resolution approves sentencing and supervision length guidelines for adult crimes, and juvenile disposition guidelines, that the Utah Sentencing Commission has prepared.

This resolution asks Congress to support federal funding for the Second Chance Reauthorization Act, which helps pay for prisoner reentry programs, and to reform federal cell phone jamming rules for prisons.

This joint resolution would amend Utah's rules of evidence so that machine-generated evidence is judged by the same reliability standards used for expert evidence.

This joint resolution would change two sets of Utah court rules for capital felony cases.

This bill adds about $454.7 million in supplemental spending to the state's 2026 fiscal year budget for various state agencies, and reduces general fund and income tax fund spending by $25.8 million.

This bill appropriates money for state employee pay and benefits for fiscal year 2026, including a 2.5% labor market pay increase for state and higher education employees and a similar increase for judicial branch and constitutional offices.

This bill removes certain outdated or redundant reporting requirements that the law enforcement and criminal justice interim committee had been assigned.

S.B. 18 mainly makes technical fixes to Utah's criminal code, such as correcting cross-references, subsections, a citation, and a title.

The bill would require local law enforcement agencies to examine seized cell phones themselves or through agreements with other agencies, instead of sending them to the FBI-run RCFL lab.

S.B. 27 expands the state's assault and threat-of-violence protections so they also cover National Guard and military service members, not just peace officers.

S.B. 32 removes one line from last year's child torture law and moves that provision to a different section of the Utah Code, where the sponsor says child torture already appears in the murder section.

The bill would allow only pure kratom leaf to be sold, and only in tobacco specialty stores, to buyers aged 21 or older, with penalties of up to $5,000 for violations.

SB 63 would add an exception to Utah's assault law so that choke holds used between two voluntary participants in a sport, under that sport's common rules such as MMA, would not be covered.

S.B. 66 would restore a rule that a medical cannabis pharmacy license cannot be moved from one region of Utah to another.

S.B. 71 would set up a formal process that police must follow before returning or destroying evidence in misdemeanor and felony cases.

The bill makes it illegal to produce or distribute obscene material depicting bestiality or animal crushing, and puts this in a new standalone code section.

The bill would bar Utah from disciplining or taking action against a physician's license for declining to take part in a state-sponsored execution.

If the federal government moves an FDA-approved drug off Schedule I and assigns it a federal controlled-substance schedule, Utah would adopt that same schedule for the drug under state law.

SB 86 would make the records law enforcement keeps for firearms stored under the voluntary safe harbor program private rather than public, and would destroy a record once a person picks up their firearm.

S.B. 87 would let expired naloxone, the overdose reversal drug, continue to be supplied, used, and distributed for up to two years past its expiration date.

S.B. 90 would create a military crosswalk that matches military training and job roles to existing civilian occupational license requirements, so veterans and service members can have that training credited toward a Utah license.

The bill would let prosecutors bring a homicide charge against someone after the victim dies from injuries caused by an earlier offense, even though that person was already prosecuted for the earlier serious bodily injury.

The bill makes it a crime to operate an unmanned aircraft, such as a drone, near correctional facilities, which would prohibit flying drones in restricted prison airspace.

S.B. 96 would let the Office of the Medical Examiner's opioid fatality review committee access treatment records of people who have died, despite federal confidentiality protections for those records.

S.B. 125 would change Utah's theft law so that taking a low-value public transit fare, such as a bus or train ride, is no longer automatically a felony when the offender has a prior theft conviction.

S.B. 128 would create a purple alert system to notify the public and coordinate public safety, health, and community groups when a vulnerable person, such as someone with a disability, is missing.

S.B. 142 clarifies that the 2024 private probation rule applies to both private probation businesses and individuals.

This bill would move about $5 million a year from existing funds to pay for roughly 19 to 20 more Utah Highway Patrol troopers.

S.B. 153 would make voter registration records public by default, with exceptions for sensitive identifiers like Social Security and driver's license numbers, email addresses, birth dates, signatures, and ballot choices.

S.B. 156 would let constables set up a payment schedule with a person who owes a debt, instead of immediately seizing that person's personal property.

S.B. 166 would restore an earlier starting date for line-of-duty death benefits and make clear that dental and vision coverage is included in the benefits for an officer's children and spouse.

S.B. 183 would bar law enforcement from tampering with privately installed surveillance cameras on private property, meaning covering, removing, or changing their direction.

A person already sentenced for a crime who gives helpful information to law enforcement could have their conviction reduced by one degree if the prosecutor and defense attorney jointly file a motion asking for it.

S.B. 194 would require conflict-of-interest plans for lieutenant governor elections and for county clerks facing conflicts, change weekend election deadlines, and let campaign funds be used for home security.

S.B. 210 removes local health department search and seizure authority that courts found unconstitutional, and moves enforcement duties to the Department of Public Safety.

The bill moves constable licensing from county and city appointment to the state, placing it under the Department of Commerce's licensing division (DOPL) with state oversight and complaint procedures.

The bill would require an officer who decides not to seek a blood or chemical testing warrant after a fatal motor vehicle crash to first consult a senior officer before making that final decision.

This bill would require the Department of Public Safety and the Tax Commission to study whether the driver license division and motor vehicle divisions should be combined under one agency.

S.B. 261 would clarify the rules for collaborative practice agreements between pharmacists and physicians and add vaccines and epinephrine to the medications pharmacists may prescribe and administer.

The bill waives civil court document filing fees for the state and its political subdivisions, and raises the Online Court Assistance Program filing surcharge from $20 to $60.

The bill would require law enforcement and prosecutors to separate non-public victim and witness data, such as intimate images, personal messages, and private device records, from ordinary evidence.

S.B. 313 moves the budget for Adult Probation and Parole, which is currently a division of the Utah Department of Corrections, so that it sits under that department's budget.

S.B. 323 would create a new Department of Criminal Justice with a commissioner and two deputy commissioners to lead criminal justice programs now under the executive branch.

This resolution asks the Public Employees' Health Program to treat non-opioid pain medications the same as opioids in its coverage rules, including copays and prior authorization, so that no patient must try an opioid first.

This joint resolution would change Utah's rules of evidence for adult sexual assault cases so that prior sexual assault allegations could be admitted in certain cases.

This resolution encourages local governments to consider how pet owners would care for their animals during disasters in their emergency planning.

H.B. 39 would require state prisons and county jails to follow unified standards and undergo regular inspections by an independent party instead of policing themselves.

H.B. 49 would separate the pay plan for Division of Wildlife Resources law enforcement officers from pay plans for other state agencies.

H.B. 56 would let a vehicle owner who sells or trades in a vehicle cancel the registration online and get a prorated refund for the unused months, minus a $5 fee.

The bill lets the state bill Medicaid for inmates' health care during the 90 days before release, using a federal waiver.

H.B. 80 would allow an adult to be criminally charged if they keep a loaded firearm at home without proper security, a minor under 16 gets it and uses it unlawfully, such as in a fight or quarrel or by displaying it in public.

The bill would make it an infraction to knowingly possess an altered toy gun, such as an airsoft or pellet gun made to look like a real firearm, in a public place.

This bill would treat a person found not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial in a criminal case as a restricted person for dangerous weapons purposes, whether the charge is a felony or a misdemeanor.

The bill raises criminal fines for people who commit crimes at illicit massage parlors and prostitution-related offenses.

This bill clarifies that a child's death by suicide can be treated as child abuse homicide when the abuse directly or proximately caused it, and that suicide cannot be used as a defense in such a case.

H.B. 149 would let victims of child sexual abuse material sue, for money damages under state law, people who publish or distribute that material.

The bill creates a poaching mitigation fund, paid for by restitution from people convicted of illegally taking protected wildlife, to pay for wildlife crime prevention and detection.

This bill would clarify that a person carrying a firearm on daycare or K-12 school premises must carry it concealed.

H.B. 183 would change the word "gender" to "sex" throughout Utah's state code, so that the code uses the defined term "sex." Certain references, such as those to the Utah Compact, would stay unchanged.

This bill would let a criminal defendant or a victim file a request asking a court for a speedy trial, which would put pressure on the court to move the case along.

H.B. 294 would lower the threshold for employers to use E-Verify, the federal system that checks employee work eligibility, from employers with 150 or more employees to employers with 100 or more.

H.B. 295 would change Utah's Good Samaritan overdose law so that a person who seeks help for an overdose, or is overdosing, can use an affirmative defense against a drug charge only if it is a first offense and they show proof of a substance abuse evaluation and any recommended treatment.

The bill bans hunting feral swine in Utah, classifies them as nuisance predators, and adds stronger enforcement and penalties for them, including impounding vehicles used in feral swine hunting.

The bill lets each county sheriff, before July 1, 2026, choose whether to make the major commander, captain, and lieutenant ranks career service exempt from the merit system, where only the sheriff, chief deputy, and chief are now exempt.

This bill would create a program that lets small, rural first responder agencies buy into access to the Department of Public Safety network for $25.

The bill would make it a crime to take part in animal fighting, including dog fighting, and to possess related equipment.

The bill would let people who were sexually assaulted while incarcerated get mental health services through the Utah Office for Victims of Crime, even if they report the assault only after release.

This bill clarifies the meaning of "position of special trust" in Utah's child sexual abuse law by defining terms such as uncle, cohabitant, and partner.

H.B. 387 would give the Department of Agriculture and Food authority to regulate kratom products, with registration and testing, and would limit legal products to pure leaf powder.

The bill would require decontamination of properties, such as hotel rooms, where meth or fentanyl is found, adding drug use as a trigger alongside drug labs.

The bill requires the state, through the Attorney General's office, to begin seeking federal approval from the FCC for a three-digit phone number that would connect callers to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

H.B. 446 would add two items to the conflict of interest disclosure that candidates, incumbents, and appointees file each year: unresolved tax liens of more than $500 that are at least two years old, and certain criminal convictions.

H.B. 476 changes Utah's insanity defense rules under the title Insanity Defense Amendments.

This bill would give state and local government entities the same legal immunity from liability that private property owners already have when a person lawfully carrying a firearm on their property discharges it, unless the government directed the discharge.

The bill would treat mini motorcycles and pocket bikes the same as full-size motorcycles under state law, so law enforcement can apply motorcycle rules to them.

H.B. 588 would direct the state Office of American Indian, Alaska Native and Family Services to create a training curriculum on investigating murders and disappearances of Indigenous individuals.

This bill would place seven-hydroxy-mitragynine, a substance found in kratom that can also be made synthetically, in Schedule I of Utah's controlled substances list, which means it could not be legally sold.

The bill bars law enforcement agencies from requiring officers to meet a set number or percentage of citations, and it makes agencies that break this ban ineligible for state grants.

S.B. 70 would ask local emergency management plans to include a plan for sheltering pets during disasters.

S.B. 94 would direct the Department of Corrections to offer an optional financial literacy class to inmates, alongside other classes offered at prisons.

The bill as revised would make repeatedly calling 911 about non-emergencies a Class B misdemeanor, but a caller would first receive a warning.

This bill would officially label animal control officers as first responders in Utah law.

This bill would allow a separate charge against a person who harms an innocent bystander while using force against someone else.

The bill would require courts to report convictions for animal abuse offenses into the state child welfare (DCFS) records system, so caseworkers can use that information when deciding on children's cases.

This bill would let a juvenile court authorize an investigative warrant so the Division of Child and Family Services can access and check on a child when there is a credible threat of serious harm and access has been refused.

This bill would make a technical clarification to a 2025 law about when a juvenile can be ordered onto the sex offender registry.

This bill would explicitly allow Utah cities to contract with outside attorneys to handle criminal prosecution, matching the authority counties already have.

The bill would require Utah jails to let defense attorneys visit prospective clients who are held there, so an inmate can vet an attorney before hiring them.

S.B. 205 would require law enforcement agencies that use artificial intelligence tools to generate police reports to disclose that use and the safeguards they apply.

The bill would require investigators, auditors, and prosecutors in felony cases to sign statements that evidence was obtained and provided in compliance with state and federal law, and would require a prosecuting agency to sign a statement about evidence disclosures.

The bill would stop law enforcement from using unmarked vehicles to make traffic stops for infractions, so those stops would need to be made in marked vehicles or by other officers.

The bill would require that charges in domestic violence cases be brought within five days, and it drops an earlier requirement to assign a detective within 48 hours.

S.B. 317 changes the word "opiate" to "opioid" throughout the Utah Code where it appears, including in the defined terms "opiate antagonist" and "opiate related drug overdose event," which would become "opioid antagonist" and "opioid related drug overdose event." The bill's latest version, the first substitute, adds coordinating language, and the sponsor describes the changes as terminology cleanup.

This bill would repeal state licensing requirements for commercial interior designers, court reporters, deception detection practitioners, and music therapists, so people in those jobs would no longer need a state license.

This concurrent resolution would ask the United States not to resume explosive nuclear weapons testing.

This joint resolution would change court rules so that jury selection in felony cases must be held in person, unless the parties agree otherwise.

H.B. 114 would split a single section of Utah code into two separate sections: one covering pornography and one covering lewdness, including lewdness involving minors.

The bill would let a person with a civil protective order petition a judge for expungement of a related criminal case once 10 years have passed since the order was entered.