HB283 would create the Community and Police Relations Commission in Utah. The commission, comprised of various state government officials and community members appointed for two-year renewable terms, would be required to address “systemic issues of inequality and racial disparities,” as well as report on “data collection” and “law enforcement transparency.”
The House passed HB283 on February 18, 2021, by a vote of 39 to 29. We have assigned pluses to the nays because unelected ‘civilian review boards’ are an attempt to exert control over state and local law enforcement, a power that, under both Article IV, Section 4, and the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, is guaranteed to be reserved to each state and–by devolvement–local government. In a republic, government is limited to rule of law of, by, and for the people, whose representative officials shall alone exercise legitimate civil authority.