The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Salt Lake City Weekly and the Moab Sun News. At a Sept. 27, 2022, Moab City Council meeting, then-Chief Jared Garcia introduced his new assistant chief Lex Bell to the council, as well as another detective. It was a standard small...
By Eric S. Peterson and Sam Stecklow The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Invisible Institute and Salt Lake City Weekly. In September 2019, the Logan City Police Department hired Officer Miguel Deras, who had recently left the University of Utah’s campus police. Police officers move from...
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Kamal Bewar insists the campfire was out. But when he, his friends and their children returned to their site at Storm Mountain Picnic Area last summer, they found a note accusing them of having left it burning....
This story was reported by the Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Invisible Institute and Salt Lake City Weekly Ken Wallentine is one of Utah policing’s most high-profile figures. He frequently gives testimony to legislative committees considering bills affecting the criminal justice system, and served as president of the Utah Chiefs of Police...
By Eric S. Peterson, Erin Alberty and Kim Bojórquez The following was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project and Axios Salt Lake City, in partnership with Salt Lake City Weekly. Adrian Govan had just stepped out of his grandmother’s house on Memorial Day 2015, when he saw the Salt Lake City Police patrol car...
The following story was reported and written by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah’s $1.04 billion new prison was supposed to be the start of a revolution in how the state deals with incarcerated felons — with a laserlike focus on safety and rehabilitation. Instead, it’s being run...
By Eric S. Peterson The following story was written and researched by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah hunting guide Wade Lemon faces five years in state prison for the death of a Carbon County bear killed during a guided hunt on May 18, 2018. But Lemon, a...
The following story was supported by The Fund for Investigative Journalism and was reported by Eric S. Peterson of The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Deseret News. On Jan. 17, 2021, the Utah Capitol was ready for anything. A little over a week after the tumult of the insurrection at the nation’s...
The following story was reported by Taylor Hartman for The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake City Weekly, The Standard Examiner, The Park Record and The Daily Herald. It’s been a year since news broke that Operation Underground Railroad, a Utah based anti-trafficking nonprofit that has gained international prominence, was under...
The following story was supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism and was reported by Eric S. Peterson of The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Ty Bellamy is hoarse — not surprising given the amount of time she spends in Utah streets rallying for police reform....