BEN DORGER, Standard-Examiner
Weber County Sheriff Ryan Arbon arrives at the scene of an officer-involved shooting in Ogden on Thursday, May 28, 2020. The Ogden Police Department reported an officer-involved shooting nearby and were urging residents to avoid the area.The annual Utah crime report released by state officials Tuesday documented surging crime in 2020, including a 44% higher homicide rate, more violent crime overall, and a greater incidence of property offenses that runs counter to the national trend.
“Despite the numbers we reported today, Utah remains a very safe state,” Utah Public Safety Commissioner Jess Anderson said in a statement accompanying the “Crime in Utah 2020” report. “It’s important to remember that even though there were increases in various index crimes, one year does not make a trend.”
Index crimes, a category that includes homicide and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, were up 5.69% over 2019. Violent crime overall was up 1.04% — driven by higher numbers in homicide (44.16%), robbery (5.78%) and aggravated assault (2.7%).
The report broke down homicides by reporting agency. In Weber County, the unincorporated portion of the county had two homicides, while Ogden reported four, Riverdale two and North Ogden one. In Davis County, Layton had three homicides and one each occurred in Clearfield and the unincorporated county. Box Elder and Morgan agencies reported no homicides in 2020 and Utah County had two, both in Springville. There were 47 homicides in Salt Lake County.
Property crimes went up 6.17% statewide, and theft in Utah was 32.8% higher than the national average.
In its annual national report last week, the FBI said violent crime was up across the country by 5.2%, with property crimes continuing a long-term decline, dropping 8.1%.
The Utah Department of Public Safety report Tuesday said overall crime had been on a downward trend since 2016, but the 2020 data affirmed that violent crime is increasing.
The report listed various factors that can affect the type and volume of crimes depending on the community. They include density and population size, relative stability of the population, socioeconomic status, cultural conditions and education levels, the effective strength of law enforcement, criminal justice system policies and public attitudes toward law enforcement.
Later Tuesday, the Utah Sheriffs’ Association issued a blistering statement in part blaming crime trends on George Soros, a financier of various Democratic Party and liberal causes and a figure who is considered in conservative and right-wing circles to be an arch-bogeyman. Soros has supported causes including moves in many states to reduce or eliminate the justice system’s reliance on cash bail for criminal suspects.
“The George Soros catch and release, cashless bail, defund the police, radical agenda is good for criminals and a disaster for public safety,” said the statement by the sheriffs’ group’s president, Cache County Sheriff Chad Jensen. “Unfortunately, it has caught up with us. The result is a seemingly endless cycle of career criminals who believe there are few consequences for their actions. They will continue to offend, get released, and reoffend until we stop this nonsense.”
Jensen also cited a worsening staffing shortage in Utah police agencies. “Without an emerging workforce, and with the decline of an existing workforce, crime will continue to increase, and public safety will disappear,” Jensen said.
In an interview, Jensen said he “absolutely” saw the advocacy of Soros resulting in Utah movements such as the 2015 Justice Reinvestment Initiative, bail reform and “defund the police.” Several cities in Utah, including Ogden, have raised police pay over the past year.
“This is a national thing going on in every state in the country, none of which has worked,” Jensen said.
Weber County Sheriff Ryan Arbon declined to comment on Jensen’s remarks about Soros and the alleged radical agenda. But he said sheriffs have been discussing for a long time the effects of justice system reform and impacts on police, workloads and staffing.
“We want to protect and serve and we’re asking the Legislature for some help,” Arbon said. Regarding bail reform, he referred to “anecdotal stories of these people being arrested on probably high charges and all of a sudden just being released.”
Sheriffs’ Association Director Scott Burns said the group “will continue pushing back against this anti-law enforcement agenda. We will be the voice for the victims of crimes, and we will continue fighting to keep Utah a safe place to live.”
In 2020, the Utah Legislature passed a bail reform law that established a rebuttable presumption of release for suspects of non-violent crimes and a rebuttable presumption of detention for suspects in violent offenses. Sponsors said it moved the system to rely more on a suspect’s risk to the community and less on a suspect’s ability to come up with cash bail. They said dangerous suspects would still be held, but wealthy arrestees would no longer be able to easily get out of jail. On the other side, low-level offenders of limited means would not languish in jail awaiting trial.
However, the Sheriffs’ Association, citing few cases of suspects getting out of jail and committing violent crimes, led an effort to overturn the reform law, and lawmakers in March 2021 repealed the 2020 law. A workgroup is considering additional bail changes to make in the 2020 legislative session.
Tuesday’s state report also said arrests were down more than 20% statewide, although much of the drop was due to COVID-19, as jails cut their populations and asked local police departments to release more suspects with promises to appear in court. Even with smaller populations, the Weber and Davis jails had COVID outbreaks, fueled by the lack of social distancing.
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