By Melanie Eversley
A joint study by The Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune, the PBS series “Frontline” shows — perhaps not a surprise — that police in the state shoot disproportionately at people of color.
People of color account for a third of those shot at by police in Utah over the last decade while accounting for only a quarter of the population, according to the data analysis. Meanwhile, a little more than three quarters of Utahns are white but whites account for only 63.5 percent of all police shootings in the state, the analysis shows.
The study is unique because no government entity in the state collects such data.
Officials representing both major political parties said they were disappointed and not surprised.
State Rep. Angela Romera, a Salt Lake City Democrat, told the Tribune that the study “confirmed what I have always believed.”
Representatives from the Utah Fraternal Order of Police and the Utah Chiefs of Police Association said society should be concerned at the policy level, but also pointed out police in the state have not fatally shot an unarmed Black man in the last decade.
