The Utah County Attorney’s Office, has established a Criminal Investigation’s Division to investigate financial crimes, political corruption, police officer involved shootings, and computer crimes. This office also assists other law enforcement agencies and is proactive in educating the community and senior citizens on how to keep from becoming victims of financial crimes.
The Bureau also aids Utah County police agencies in forensic computer examinations.
The Bureau may also conduct polygraph examinations on request from local police agencies, after consultation between the investigating officer, the investigating agency’s liaison attorney and the polygraph examiner.
Please review the information below before seeking to file a complaint. If you believe your case meets the criteria outlined below, call 801-851-8026 and ask to file a complaint with the Bureau. You should note that because of the large number of complaints received by the Bureau, and the relatively few number of investigators, some crimes that meet the criteria outlined below may still not be accepted for investigation and you may be referred to a different police agency.
See piled trash, dumped wastewater, leaking chemicals, or smell something different? Report it!
Contact DISPATCH at 801-794-3970 or fill out the Online Form Below to report an environmental issue. You may also attach a photo in (jpg, png, pdf formats) up to 10 mb.
Several years ago, the Utah Valley Police Chiefs and the Utah County Attorney jointly decided to form a task force to investigate incidents involving police officers. Utah County needed a task force because, in incidents involving police officers, the officer’s own agency could not reasonably investigate the incident for two reasons:
Related to both of these reasons was the issue of civil liability. Anytime an officer is involved in the death of another person, the decedent’s family is likely to sue the officer’s agency. In the civil lawsuit, if the agency performed its own investigation of the incident, the investigation would appear to be tainted. The plaintiffs would discount the agency’s conclusions because it had a strong financial incentive to clear the officer of wrongdoing. Contrarily, if an unbiased agency or task force conducted the investigation, its conclusions would likely hold greater weight in the civil proceedings.
Similarly, the level or depth of the investigation needed to protect (or not protect) the police agency from liability commonly required resources beyond the capabilities of one agency. For example, in many of the officer-involved shootings, there are multiple crime scenes, dozens of witnesses, and dozens of leads to track down. We have found that it takes, on average, approximately 700 man-hours to complete an investigation. It can be overwhelming for one agency (that still has calls to respond to and crimes to investigate) to dedicate so many resources to one investigation, when another agency has to conduct a parallel investigation anyway.
Additionally, some of these incidents, by statute, required the county attorney to conduct its own investigation–and the County Attorney’s Office did not have sufficient resources to conduct these investigations without assistance.
Therefore, in 1999, the chiefs and county attorney established the Utah County Officer Involved Incident Protocol (the Protocol) and created a task force (the Task Force) to manage the investigation of Protocol incidents. Each agency assigned officers to participate and the Utah County Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigations became the agency responsible for managing and training the Task Force.
In the Protocol, the chiefs and county attorney decided that the Task Force would investigate what we call an Officer Involved Incident, which the Protocol defines as an incident with two elements.
First, it must involve local law enforcement:“An incident which occurs in any city, town, or unincorporated area of Utah County and involves any employee of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, Brigham Young University Police, Utah Valley University Police, Utah Highway Patrol, Utah Department of Public Safety, Utah Department of Corrections, or any Police Department or Department of Public Safety of any city or town located in Utah County.”
Second, the incident must involve one of the following acts:
In short, if the Officer Involved Incident occurs in Utah County, involves an employee of a local or state police agency, and involves one of the enumerated acts, the Protocol is triggered and the Task Force may investigate.
After completion of the investigation, the Task Force refers the investigation to the police agency employing the involved officer(s) for commendation or disciplinary action, and to the County Attorney for his review.