Utah News Dispatch
Police in Utah could get a funding boost to solve violent crimes under a new bill
An Ogden Police vehicle is pictured on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
A Utah lawmaker wants to provide extra cash to police departments to help them solve violent crimes.
Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, told reporters Tuesday the goal is to help police departments improve their clearance rates, or the share of cases they determine are closed.
“This is really just smart investment in reducing crime,” Clancy said.
His bill, HB137, would create a new grant program for law enforcement agencies, with a portion of the funding set aside just for rural departments. They could use the money for several purposes, including hiring homicide detectives, holding trainings and running forensic analysis.
Clancy, also a detective with Provo police, is asking lawmakers to set aside $250,000 this year for the initiative but said he also envisions private donors chipping in. The state’s more than $30 billion budget is expected to be tight due to federal tax cuts.
Clearance rates help measure how many reports of crime are solved, but not every “cleared” case results in criminal charges for a perpetrator.
Some cases are cleared by arrest. Others are cleared by “exceptional” means, when police know who and where their suspect is and believe they have enough evidence, but can’t make an arrest because of factors outside their control. Examples include that a suspect died or prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges.
Law enforcement agencies including Baltimore police in Maryland have faced accusations of improperly clearing cases by exception — including by blaming crimes on people who are deceased — to artificially inflate their clearance rates.
Utah’s overall clearance rate in the last five years is about 70%, above the national rate of roughly 56%, according to FBI data. When it comes to rape, about 1 in 3 Utah cases are cleared, which is also higher than the national rate.
Survivors of sexual assault have criticized law enforcement in Utah and beyond, saying it’s not just a matter of resources but of detectives’ willingness to thoroughly investigate their cases.
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Proponents of the Utah bill say it could provide meaningful help.
Ogden Police Chief Jake Sube said during a news conference Tuesday that a single homicide or violent assault can take hundreds of hours to investigate, and the bill provides “targeted support.”
“This is especially important for agencies with limited operational resources, including small and rural communities,” Sube said.
Clancy noted Utah isn’t alone in considering a bill seeking to strengthen police investigative capabilities and improve clearance rates.
“This is an issue that’s gaining steam, I think, with both Republicans and Democrats across the country,” Clancy said.
One of his Democratic colleagues, Rep. Verona Mauga, of Salt Lake City, spoke in favor of the bill during the news conference at the state Capitol.
“Too many people are still waiting for answers in cases that have gone cold,” Mauga said. “That kind of uncertainty is incredibly painful.”
A similar measure in Michigan faced pushback last month and questions about how much it would help, after clearance rates there fell despite past boosts in public investment.
Both the Utah and Michigan proposals have support from the Niskanen Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank which contends they could deter future instances of violent crime and keep communities safer.
The Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice would run the grant program and measure improvement at police departments receiving the grants. The bill doesn’t stipulate exactly how big financial awards would be or how many police departments could qualify.
The bill has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing.
