KZMU News: Wednesday July 15, 2020

The local discussion around police reform often focuses on Moab’s Police Department or the Grand County Sheriff’s Office. But there’s another agency playing a big role in the local law enforcement landscape – Utah Highway Patrol. The state police are present in Grand County through patrols, investigations, and officer training. Today on the news, we talk with a UHP representative about the agency’s updated use of force policy and more.

KZMU News · Wednesday July 15, 2020

---

Lt. Nicholas Street Interview Transcript

---

KZMU NEWS: Do you mind just describing how Utah Highway Patrol works specifically in the Grand County area? How many officers are here? How does UHP coordinate with other law enforcement agencies here like the sheriff’s office and the police department?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Sure. So specifically in that area of the state, we have 15 troopers, including two sergeants and a lieutenant, and they cover from basically Green River down to Mexican Hat, if that makes sense. So all of Grand and San Juan counties.

KZMU NEWS: That’s a huge area.

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: It is. And that’s why it’s so important for law enforcement agencies in a rural part of the state like that to have great relationships. And UHP does obviously reach out often – we’re sometimes on the same radio channels and things like that through those local communities down in San Juan and Grand County, so that, you know, if they need back up – local municipal officers and county deputies – they’re available to do that and vice versa.

KZMU NEWS: Okay. So does that mean that you know, typically we have just like one or two highway patrol officers here at any given time?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Correct. Maybe, you know, on a busy time, like holiday weekends and things like that, the emphasis will be put out to have more officers on duty. I ought to add too with Department of Public Safety – we have our State Bureau of Investigation. And also we have our commercial motor vehicle section. And there are additional troopers assigned to that area that do commercial motor vehicle enforcement.

KZMU NEWS: For people who might be a little less familiar with UHP – can you get into the duties and functions of Highway Patrol?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: So, you know, we’re sworn peace officers for the State of Utah. We are the state police, more commonly known as the Utah Highway Patrol. We are the state police under the Department of Public Safety. With that, our mission is to provide quality police services and to protect the constitutional rights of all people in Utah. So that goes hand in hand with the mission and current slogan of Department of Public Safety, which is ‘Keeping Utah Safe.’ Highway Patrol has most, if not all of the interstates and U.S. highways as our jurisdiction throughout the states. And, you know, in a state like Utah, especially rural areas like Grand and San Juan Counties, there are quite a few road miles of those jurisdictional roadways.

KZMU NEWS: Lots of highway. So is there anything else you wanted to mention on that point? 

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: And then also on that point – with the benefit of being a state agency…the Department of Public Safety has close to 600 sworn officers, and most of them [belong] to the Utah Highway Patrol, but a lot of them [belong] to our Investigations Bureau, and others, [like] our professional standards division. For small agencies, like the Moab Police Department [for instance], we’ve helped them out in areas where maybe they don’t have the resources…like an internal affairs investigation, which the Department of Public Safety has done with our professional standards division. And also, maybe they don’t have the resources to look into something. Like I know a few years back our State Bureau of Investigation assisted the Moab Police Department with some criminal investigation matters. In those times where rural communities might be facing something that might seem overwhelming or maybe they realize they don’t have the resources to conduct the investigation, all they have to do is ask the state troopers – Highway Patrol – and we can provide our resources for that. And we’re glad to do that.

KZMU News: Okay, because it sounds like you have state resources behind you.

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Correct. Yep – services, training, a wealth of knowledge that sometimes it’s hard for smaller municipal departments to come by. So if they’re a little overwhelmed, all they have to do is ask and we’re happy to step in and assist them with any type of investigation.

KZMU News: And so I would like to move on to the national conversation on racial justice and police brutality. So first off, has it influenced UHP at all. What are changes that have come down? Or any other conversations that the department might be having at this moment or have in recent weeks?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Yeah, well we’re actively listening to those seeking reform and definitely have a broader understanding as of late as to some of the issues nationwide. And not just nationwide, but also some locally here that, you know, we need to make sure that those reforms seekers are brought to the table to institute necessary changes. One of those being – our use of force policy. We have specifically addressed the chokehold issue. And it is, you know, considered a deadly force option, which it always has been with Department of Public Safety and the same thing at POST. But now, it’s specifically outlined that it’s not to be used as any type of control hold, or in any other circumstance other than where deadly force would be warranted. 

So with that, let’s go back to about 2015. I don’t know if you recall, at that time, there was quite the conversation – a political conversation – about immigration and refugees being brought into our state. Our state at the time was bringing in about 1600 refugees annually. Those communities, they were being brought in through two resettlement agencies – you have the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Community Services, but with limits on housing and things like that…The state and the resources and the non-government organizations that were there had to put folks kind of in lower housing options and things like that. And so it made for communities, which is great, but at the same time, with the language barriers and cultural barriers, those communities were somewhat at the time maybe a little disenfranchised, or didn’t have the same access to public safety services. So Governor Herbert saw that and thought at the time Commissioner Keith Squires should look into those issues and see if there was any public safety concerns…

So actually, I was picked to be the refugee outreach person for the Department of Public Safety. And so as new refugees would come into those resettlement agencies, I provided a class to teach them some of the basics of not just Utah laws, but also the basics of constitutional rights that they have and what police from municipal county in the state agencies can provide for them, when they call them, why they shouldn’t be afraid to call us and things like that. To this day, we’ve maintained that position and established a great rapport with those ethnic and racial communities that came to Utah as refugees. That kind of began our community outreach to folks who may not have had the same bridge built to public safety as those who were born and grew up here in the state of Utah. 

And now, you know, we’re in a new environment and we are considering similar changes along those lines in potentially establishing other outreach programs. And kind of shifting maybe…With the call to defund police – I know that most people on the side of airing that grievance of defunding the police, they don’t necessarily mean end police departments and stop providing resources for officers but kind of a shift, you know, [from] heavy handed enforcement to more of that maybe mental health services, community outreach, other things we can do to address these societal issues that have come to light as of late.

KZMU NEWS: I know that most of these conversations are being fueled at the state level by our city centers in northern Utah. Would those community conversations extend to rural Utah? Can you imagine that as well? 

LT. NICHOLAS STREET:  You know, we’re having those conversations. That’s where we really need to…From the state, we have a – and I hate to say we have a broader picture – but we also have more resources that we can reach out to those rural communities throughout the state and build a better foundation so that these issues aren’t a problem in our rural communities. Maybe help people understand through our public information and education section, starting at the high school level, including something in our curriculum that doesn’t just talk about, you know, wearing your seatbelt and not speeding, but also those steps that law enforcement is taking so that we are protecting the constitutional rights of all people in the state of Utah to include those that are racially and ethnically more diverse from the majority population here.

KZMU NEWS: When you were talking about the refugee program and talking about people’s constitutional rights, I was thinking we could all use that class. 

So I have a detailed question for you about the use of force policy. So the new policy that was recently updated, still has carotid restraints and chokeholds labeled as ‘less lethal force.’ But then in another section, the one that was recently added, it says that they can’t be used as pain compliance or arrest control techniques, only if it’s ‘reasonable.’, I’m wondering if there’s a contradiction there? One section of the policy chokeholds are less lethal. And the other section it seems like it’s much more serious to use those restraints. Could you expand upon that?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: So in response to your question about there being some contradictory language in our policy…Going back if you look, it says that when we’re talking about training at POST, there’s an understanding that you know, carotid restraints, chokeholds, etc. are not authorized for less lethal applications by POST. So you can complement POST training, but you cannot contradict those practices. Meaning those are outlawed when it comes to complementing anything that POST teaches or adding extra things to police departments’ curriculum that POST teaches. So since POST doesn’t teach it, you can’t teach it and you can’t alter anything to do with it because POST doesn’t teach it. And so, the less lethal force applications may include – and those are the ones that POST teaches – leg restraint devices, control devices and techniques, TASER guidelines – with the exception obviously being under the Governor’s Order those carotid restraints and chokeholds are not allowed. 

And then when we go to pain compliance techniques further on in the policy it mentions, again, carotid techniques and chokeholds. Even like kneeling on the spine or neck or throat, or direct and constant force on those same areas – mouth, neck, spine, or throat – those are considered deadly force applications and are not to be used as control techniques, pain compliance techniques in any way. And that’s spelled out under that pain compliance techniques statute. Only can an officer use those when deadly force would be reasonable, justified, etc. 

KZMU NEWS: Now, let me ask you this because it does seem like there is some room there. When I spoke to our chief of police about his department’s use of force policy, he said something kind of similar – and I’m paraphrasing here – but he said, ‘POST doesn’t teach it. We don’t use it in our training, but I’m not going to rule it out (meaning chokeholds) in every situation.’ So he was imagining a circumstance where an officer might use it. Is UHP in a similar boat? 

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: We are. Just simply, when deadly forces reasonable and justified…Let’s say we have an officer who’s exhausted the resources they have and in working through an encounter that could cause them or someone else death or serious bodily injury, [and] they’re left with very few tools left their toolbox…whether that’s, you know, looking at what mental things they’ve been trained to be able to, you know, work into defeating somebody who’s dead set on, you know, causing death or serious bodily injury to themselves or someone else. And all they can muster is, you know, a chokehold. We wouldn’t take that out of their toolbox. Deadly force encounters are so dynamic and really pretty diverse. If you look at a broad range of officers, you know, running into those encounters – taking that away from an officer for someone like the chief of police, that might not be the best idea if that’s the one thing that can, you know, resolve that situation that they’re placed in.

KZMU NEWS: So here’s another policy question. I wanted to ask about use of force incidents that result in personal injury to another person. So the [UHP] policy says that each of those incidents have to be evaluated by the UHP section and bureau commanders, and then those incidents ‘may’ be reviewed by the Use of Force Review Board. Can you talk about that? What is that process like?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: So a complaint of excessive use of force is always going to be looked into by that trooper’s chain of command. Then the Use of Force Review Board as it stands right now – and again, we’re in discussions to potentially see changes in that –involves an outside, kind of an objective view from another trooper, a sergeant, a lieutenant and a captain. And so they will look objectively at the troopers use of force and if they’re concerned, then they pass that along to our internal affairs guys who are known as our professional standards division.

KZMU NEWS: Any changes that you can talk about publicly [that are] currently being considered for the Use of Force Review Board?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET:  Sure, yeah. [There’s] all sworn members on the board…We have guidance from our state legislature as to how to look into like deadly use of force incidents and there would need to be changes there as well. But also when it comes to looking at, you know, how objectively are we looking at that when we only have sworn members on that board. So maybe having people from outside of law enforcement looking at that may be beneficial to getting a more objective look at those use of force incidents…State law prohibits excessive force, [so] if there’s an investigation into excessive force, that’s a criminal matter. And so that is now going to be looked at by our Internal Affairs Division. But not only that, there would be a criminal investigation by an objective outside agency. And then that information from that investigation would then be provided to [the] police academy and the police academy has their POST counsel, and that’s made up of numerous members of the community, not just sworn law enforcement. They would look at that and determine if an officer should keep their certification, but also, it’s going to be looked at in a court of law  if there is a charge brought by the respective county attorney…

KZMU NEWS:  Okay. Well, thank you for going through that. Because that’s an important process and one that I think our listeners would be interested in. 

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: …In fact, today I will be part of a community discussion, where we’ve even invited those across the protest lines to come and join us in these discussions. And, and I think, you know, the roots of change are being planted and it’s just a matter of time ‘til we can – and hopefully a short time as tensions are high across the United States –that we can address the changes that need to be made. So that bridges to public safety across our state are strong and good with every member of the community and all people in the state of Utah.

KZMU NEWS: I want to touch on training needs and assessments. In our local police department and sheriff’s office policies, they have to look at training needs and assess them every year. So are there similar measures at UHP? And are there any conversations that have changed like they have here locally? Including implicit bias training or more de-escalation training?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Absolutely. Yeah. In fact, for our in-service [training] that began yesterday, we invited members of minority communities to come in and have a discussion. Not just providing the implicit bias training – which we’re doing – but also having a discussion and hearing them out as to where they come from when and their perception of law enforcement. So we can better understand why potential changes need to be made, and better understand how to police in those communities better. And, of course, you know, we’re always trying to increase the diversity of our department. And I think with Highway Patrol, we do pretty well to mirror the population of the State of Utah, but in some communities, you know, that are more ethnically and racially diverse our state troopers also need to match that racial and ethnic diversity that is found in those communities. So we’re also addressing that and hopefully, you know, here in the next little while, we will have more state troopers with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

KZMU NEWS:  As for other training needs. How often do officers get trained in de-escalation?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Quite often, but looking at curriculum, I think we’ve especially, you know, over the last little while, I think we understand we can do a lot better. And, there are tweaks being made to curriculums. And even like I said, with our in-service [training], we are bringing in members of racial and ethnic communities that can kind of share their view of law enforcement and why it’s the way it is – positive or negative. And hopefully, we can institute the change that will bring about them being more comfortable with the mission of law enforcement.

KZMU NEWS: So with regard to training, all these policies are long. The use of force policy is seven pages. There’s a lot of information in it. What about training when it comes to understanding your own internal policy and state law?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Well, so every year there are new laws or changes to statute from our state legislature, and at the end of the session we go over those and when those laws are going to be implemented. We have training bulletins that get put out about that. Outside of that, we actually do what we call daily training bulletins. So troopers are required to log on to a system every day and take a daily training bulletin, and it involves a policy and an application of policy. So there’s a specific scenario that’s written. And in that scenario, at the end of it, there’s a question asked about, you know, how to use best practices in that scenario and the policy that covers it. And then troopers at the end of reviewing the scenario, reviewing the policy, they’re asked a multiple choice question as to, you know, best practices in that specific incident and how to deal with it and they have to answer correctly in order to move on to the next day’s training bulletins. And so we’re constantly providing policy applications to the troopers on a daily basis. We also have monthly training that deals with the same thing – changes in law, statute, practices. And troopers have to log on and do one hour of monthly training. And then, of course, our annual in-service, which is three days, where we, you know, kind of encompass as much as we can to help officers be better trained for the, for the mission of the Utah Highway Patrol. 

KZMU NEWS: Is there anything else you’d like to mention when it comes to these points, especially regarding future and ongoing conversations about reform? 

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Just to reiterate that, you know, this is a time of change for police departments nationwide. And with those changes, you know, it’s going to require more training, but also patience from the public a little bit. And through kind of these extremes that we’re seeing right now, I think we’ll come to a kind of that golden mean, that will steer us ahead in the future and hopefully be beneficial to everyone. 

KZMU NEWS: For people here in Grand County, or our listeners in San Juan County – how can they get involved in these conversations that are happening in the Salt Lake area?

LT. NICHOLAS STREET: Yeah, excellent question. We have a portal on our publicsafety.utah.gov webpage. So there’s a way for them to provide public comment into any of the policies and practices of the Utah Highway Patrol. And we respond to all of those. And then there’s also their state representatives to the House and the state Senate, that they can reach out to help, you know, potentially bring about changes to statute where they’re necessary in moving forward with those seeking reforming in police agencies.

---

Show Notes

---

Utah Highway Patrol Info
highwaypatrol.utah.gov

Utah Highway Patrol Use of Force Policy